Gupta man footed Anoj Singh's Dubai hotel stay using his own credit card
The Guptas' trusted lieutenant Sanjay Grover used his personal credit card to settle a Dubai hotel bill for disgraced former Eskom chief financial officer (CFO) Anoj Singh.
Documents in TimesLIVE’s possession show that although the February 2015 bill for Singh's stay at the luxury Oberio hotel was in his name‚ it was paid for by Grover using his MasterCard credit card.
Grover worked at the Guptas’ company‚ Sahara Computers.
Attempts to get comment from the Guptas were unsuccessful on Thursday night.
The revelations fly in the face of Singh's testimony before the parliamentary inquiry into state capture this week. While documents obtained through the leaked Gupta e-mails last year revealed evidence that the Guptas had paid for the trip‚ the credit card is the first solid evidence linking Grover to the transaction.
Testifying under oath‚ Singh told the inquiry that neither the Guptas nor any of their companies had paid for his stay at the hotel.
“The Gupta family did not pay for any of my travels‚” Singh insisted.
Singh‚ who resigned this week as Eskom's CFO‚ told the inquiry that his numerous stays at the hotel would have either been paid for by himself or‚ if not‚ either by his associate Mohammed al Balooshi‚ Transnet or Eskom.
In 2015‚ Singh was the CFO for Transnet.
He was unable to say whether Al Balooshi had links to Sahara Computers.
Documents seen by TimesLIVE show that at the same time that Singh was staying at the Oberoi‚ Zhang Minyu‚ a senior executive of South China Rail (SCR) was staying at the hotel. The Guptas‚ who were e-mailed Minyu's hotel arrival and departure dates‚ are alleged to have received R5.4-billion in kickbacks for SCR winning tenders to supply Transnet with 1,064 locomotives.
This week‚ Singh was questioned by Parliament over his role in the Gupta family’s capture of the state and the looting of billions of rand from the fiscus. Asked if had seen the Guptas at the hotel‚ Singh said that if he had‚ it would have been purely coincidental.
“I think I have seen the Gupta brothers in passing in Dubai. I have never had any formal meetings with them in Dubai. But if you are staying in the same hotel at the same time you will probably see each other.”
Grover's name also emerged in the controversy over government's Vrede dairy farm project‚ which has been exposed as nothing more than a looting ground for the Gupta family and their associates - with little to no oversight was exercised by the department over how the funds were being spent.
Some R40-million was paid to Vargafield‚ a company whose Grover is the sole director of.