Guptas lose court bid to stop bank account closures

The Gupta family on Thursday lost a court bid to stop the Bank of Baroda from closing down their last remaining bank accounts in South Africa.

The High Court in Pretoria dismissed an application brought by 20 Gupta-owned companies to halt the account closures.

The application was for interim relief to stop the bank from closing the family’s business and loan accounts at the end of September.

The family wanted the court to grant an interdict to delay the closing of accounts until December 7‚ when their main application was scheduled to be heard.

Counsel for the Gupta family argued the Bank of Baroda would not suffer any reputational harm between now and the time of the main application.

They also repeatedly indicated that roughly 7‚500 employees will suffer prejudice‚ as the family would not be able to transfer money to their pay agent so that salaries could be distributed if the accounts were closed.