Gupta family still able to pay workers: judge

The Gupta family will still be able to pay its workers and suppliers even if the Bank of Baroda closes its accounts at the end of the month.

20 companies owned by or linked to the Gupta family brought an urgent application in July to halt the Bank of Baroda‚ the last remaining bank open to the Guptas‚ from closing all their accounts on September 30.

Pretoria High Court Judge Hans Fabricius on Thursday dismissed the Guptas’ application for interim relief – a motion which sought to delay the closures until the main application for an interdict could be heard on December 7.

One of the key issues argued by the Guptas was that they would not be able to pay their various employees - numbering some 7‚500 - and suppliers if the accounts were closed.

“The respondent has never paid any of the applicants’ employees directly and will never be in a position to do so.

The applicants themselves acknowledged that these expenses were paid for by a third party‚ Terbium Financial Services‚ a so-called ‘pay agent’‚” Fabricius said.

Terbium would receive amounts from the Gupta family companies which would then pay their employees and suppliers using its own banking facilities.

Fabricius noted it remained uncontested that Baroda did not have the infrastructure or manpower to deal with the large volume of transactions the Gupta accounts see and the administration related to that.

Baroda has only two branches and 16 employees and does not own the infrastructure to distribute payments on a large scale.

“The bank will not be in the position to make these payments even if I order it to keep the applicants’ transactional accounts open.”

But of particular interest‚ Fabricius said‚ it was stated that the applicants may not have been entirely truthful about existing pay-agent arrangements after they failed to disclose to the court that at least six of the 20 applicants had so far managed to secure agreements with other pay agents before court papers were filed on 28 July 2017.

Fabricius said the agreement with Terbium and the new pay agents indicated “quite clearly” the Guptas would be “perfectly capable of paying their employees” and suppliers.

It was also argued in court that these pay agents could be paid from an offshore bank.