Yes please!
America might be the laughing stock of the world right now, the Orange Menace reminding us daily what a vile man he is, but who doesn’t want the help of the FBI when it comes to taking down the Guptas?
Seriously, it’s pretty much all hands on deck with this one, so feel free to help us out.
Anyway here’s IOL:
The Gupta family’s financial dealings have now caught the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), who have opened an investigation into the family.
It has been reported in the Financial Times that the FBI has been investigating the family’s financial transactions for a couple of months now.
The organisation’s investigation is centered on the Gupta brothers’ nephews, Ashish and Amol, who are US-based. According to the Financial Times, the two are directors of a US-based company.
The paper also reports that UK authorities are also looking into the family’s financial dealings, specifically looking into links with banks such as HSBC and Standard Chartered.
We have the #GuptaLeaks emails to thank for these illegal activities coming to light, which is why we should all give the Gupta Leaks website some love.
A little more on the FBI’s work via Biznews:
The long arm of the law is finally catching up with South Africa’s crony capitalist Guptas and their network of criminality and corruption. London’s Financial Times reports today that America’s feared Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) has launched a probe into the family, focusing on nephews of the Gupta brothers: Ashish and Amol Gupta. Both are US citizens which opens them to investigation and prosecution for criminality committed anywhere on earth.
The FBI is investigating payments made by a Gupta-linked UAE front to the nephews’ US-based company Brookfield. The FBI is drawing on information in the Gupta Leaks emails, a copy of which is in its possession. The powers of the FBI are wide-ranging because of the all-embracing Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
There is a precedent from the Apartheid era when the FBI arrested a family member of South African hoteliers, got him to turn state witness and using his testimony as leverage to prosecute.
In the meantime, news also broke today that UK authorities have been instructed by Chancellor Philip Hammond to investigate HSBC and Standard Chartered banks for facilitating Gupta money laundering. The Guptas are rapidly discovering that there is a serious downside to going global.
It’s all well and good having Jacob and his cronies in your back pocket, but others are less easily bought.
We know we can’t rely on the NPA and Shaun Abrahams to do their job, but perhaps the FBI can finally deliver a little justice.
