Court sets aside order to freeze Atul Gupta’s R10mln

The High Court in Bloemfontein has set aside an order to freeze R10 million paid into controversial businessman Atul Gupta’s account.

The court also reduced the preservation order from R220 million to R40 million worth of money and assets.

Judge Fouche Jordaan ruled that curator Eugene Nel had overstepped his boundaries by attaching monies belonging to Gupta and six linked companies.

The court also found that the flow of large sums of money through the Bank of Baroda was suspicious. However, suspicion alone was not enough to hold a preservation order.

Atul Gupta, the Bank of Baroda and six Gupta-linked companies challenged the validity of the preservation order. They maintain that the High Court erred in granting the order to freeze the assets of the Bank of Baroda and the R10 million in Atul Gupta’s personal account.

The alleged multi-million rand corruption relates to the Estina dairy project in Vrede which was meant for black farmers.

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