Guptas’ multibillion-rand Optimum Coal Holdings preserved by court order

The Guptas’ multibillion-rand Optimum Coal Holdings — including the Optimum Coal Mine and the Optimum Coal Terminal — have been preserved by an order of the high court in Pretoria.

The business, which the Guptas and Duduzane Zuma bought with allegedly laundered money and a prepayment from Eskom, has been under the control of business rescue practitioners.

Believed to be worth in the region of R4bn, it is now the largest asset ever preserved by the state in the history of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

The court found in favour of the Investigating Directorate, whose heads of argument were written by advocate Matthew Chaskalson SC and advocate Kate Hofmeyr SC, whom South Africans would know as evidence leaders at the Zondo commission into state capture.

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