BL Premium reports that a Transnet pension fund lawsuit has exposed how hundreds of millions of rand in pensioners’ money allegedly ended up in the accounts of Gupta family companies.  

The Transnet Second Defined Benefit Fund has stated in court papers that just more than R210m of the money used by the Guptas to pay a deposit on the Optimum coal mine can be traced back to money "misappropriated" from its members.  The fund, which has 51,000 members, describes in the papers how Regiments Fund Managers and Regiments Securities had unlawfully caused the transfer of more than R228m of pensioners’ money into its own accounts, ostensibly because it was owed this money for advisory services to Transnet.  Part of that money, according to the fund, ended up in the Bank of Baroda account used by the Guptas to pay the Optimum coal mine deposit.  In court papers filed in March 2020, the fund also accuses Regiments Capital of fraudulently funnelling R122m in allegedly unlawful fees it received from Transnet, through a front company, to Gupta-owned Sahara Computers.  The legal action launched by the fund against Gupta family ally Eric Wood and his Regiments and Trillian companies seeks an order to force him to pay it back more than R263m.  Wood has yet to file a response to the fund’s case against him.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Karyn Maughan at BusinessLive (paywall access only)

Get other news reports at the SA Labour News home page