Down the Gupta rabbit hole: Shady brothers probably ditched SA citizenship

Down the Gupta rabbit hole: A series on how the Gupta brothers have managed to dodge the law and sustain a life of luxury over the last seven years.

Minister of Home Affairs Aaron Motsoaledi has told the media earlier in April that the Gupta brothers – Atul and Rajesh – still have their South African citizenship and are allegedly still travelling on their South African passports. But, he said, they had no way of proving this.

He acknowledged that while the brothers acquired their citizenship in an irregular manner, the country has not revoked it and thus has not removed their passports as yet.

“In this way, they still belong to us. And we still have a right to them,” he said.

ALSO READ: Atul Gupta loses court bid to get South African passport

But does this really matter to the Guptas? The UAE has revealed that they have already skipped the country – and it was not on their South African passports.

The status of the Guptas’ citizenship has always been a questionable one. The Guptas moved to South Africa in 1993. In order to attain South African citizenship, they would have had to relinquish their Indian citizenship.

India only makes allowance for dual citizenship under special circumstances. The Guptas’ circumstances incidentally weren’t special enough for such consideration.

Naturalisation

As such, the Guptas allegedly renounced their Indian citizenship and applied for naturalisation in South Africa.

Well, two of the brothers at least. It was reported that Ajay Gupta had refused to relinquish his Indian citizenship. While his older brothers, Atul and Rajesh, were granted citizenship in 2002 and 2006 respectively, Ajay was granted permanent residency. But what is the difference?

Passports

The most significant difference between citizenship and permanent residence is the ability to apply for a passport for the country in which you reside. Permanent residents do not have the right to apply for a passport.

Two of the Gupta brothers applied for a South African passport. And it was on their SA passports that they travelled to Dubai.

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But whether they remained South Africans in Dubai is debatable.

According to attorney Richard Chemaly, the Guptas didn’t necessarily need the permission of the South African authorities to relinquish their citizenship. But they will have to secure new citizenship before they give up their South African one.

“While there is a UN treaty to prevent statelessness, neither South Africa nor the UAE is a signatory. However, we do have a Citizenship Act that requires citizens to intend obtaining new citizenship or already have different citizenship before renouncing their South African citizenship,” he explained.

Vanuatu

So the Guptas went ahead and got themselves some Vanuatu citizenship for the whopping price of R2.4 million ($130 000) a pop.

Vanuatu, consisting of 80 islands, offers expats a dream destination to enhance their lifestyles or a chance to dodge accountability in their home country.

According to Global Citizens Solutions, Vanuatu has a citizenship-by-investment programme that can see investors obtain citizenship in a space of two months, provided they invest R2.4 million into the Vanuatu economy and pass a strict security test.

“Vanuatu citizenship by investment is a programme that awards qualifying investors with passports in exchange for an investment in the country’s economic prosperity,” the website reads.

IFC review reported that South Africa’s crypto brothers, Ameer and Raees Cajee, who are said to be behind the Africrypt Ponzi scheme, are also believed to have fled the country for the Vanuatu islands, having bought their new citizenship.

The good news for South Africa though, according to Chemaly, is that it has the option to extradite a perpetrator regardless of whether they are South African or not. But sadly, South Africa does not have an extradition treaty with Vanuatu.

ALSO READ: SA’s request to extradite Gupta brothers from UAE fails

The Global Citizens Solution website explains that Vanuatu citizenship comes with a number of benefits, particularly that of a passport that allows visa-free access to 96 countries.

These countries include the UK, but incidentally, not Switzerland where the Guptas are said to have been spotted.

How would the Guptas have landed in Switzerland?

Well, considering they are no longer on Interpol’s red notice list and they have a new passport, the Guptas have been free to travel.

And so, they have allegedly jetted off to the land whose biggest private bank last year saw a leak that revealed the hidden wealth of clients allegedly involved in torture, drug trafficking, money laundering, corruption and other serious crimes.

The country is said to have strict banking secrecy laws. According to Article 43 in the Swiss Banking Act of 1934, bank employees, as well as persons acting on behalf of the bank are punishable with imprisonment of up to five years or a fine if they share or disseminate account relationship data with third parties.

No conscience?

But why are the Guptas continuing to evade the law? According to a source close to the family, the Guptas don’t believe that what they’ve done is inherently wrong. They have often maintained their belief of their innocence.

ALSO READ: Charges dropped against accused in Nulane R24.9m fraud trial

They don’t feel they’ve influenced South African politicians in an adverse way.

Without the innate understanding of the inequality South Africans know their ancestors have had to endure in the past, they probably do not take the country’s efforts to achieve equality seriously.  

To them, it was just a way of doing business.