Unpacking the Sale of Guptas' Coal Assets: Dubious Swiss Connection Revealed

The Guptas, a business family embroiled in mounting evidence of corruption and money laundering, have been reported to offload their South African assets, including their shares in newspaper The New Age and television station ANN7. In the most recent move of this unfolding fire-sale, Charles King SA, a corporate vehicle based in Switzerland has allegedly acquired the Guptas' coal assets in Tegeta Exploration and Resources. Amin Alzarooni, purported to be the owner of Charles King SA, has past affiliations with the Guptas, as revealed by the hashtagged #Guptaleaks. Alzarooni has been pinpointed as a Gupta front in setting up a business structure in Dubai for Ajay Gupta's son, Kamal Gupta.

The structure seemed meticulously designed to clandestinely maintain Gupta family’s ownership and control. These actions have fuelled suspicions around the recent transactions, prompting inquiries on whether Alzarooni is once again acting as a stooge or truly an established commodities tycoon.

The Gupta's corporate portfolio has been under intensified scrutiny and pressure following corruption allegations. This led several banking institutions to close their accounts, significantly hampering their business. Their South African stronghold is reportedly under severe threat, and changing ownership - whether in actuality or only in name - could potentially remove Gupta linked businesses from banking blacklists.

The aggressive reshuffling of Guptas' assets surface as extensive email leaks (#GuptaLeaks) illustrate the deeply entrenched network of corruption and money laundering involving the Gupta family, their network of companies and several high-profile government officials.

Details enclosed in the exposed emails, showed the existence of an Islamic finance arrangement (mudaraba) and an intricate web of share structuring, designed to bypass South African tax laws.

Questions are now being raised around how this arrangement might affect existing and future contracts of Tegeta, in particular its dealings with South African's public power utility, Eskom. The sale of these coal assets could significantly influence the national grid stability and even impact the socio-economic balance of the coal mining sector.