Oakbay Investments on Monday said it had not eroded the rehabilitation fund for the Optimum coal mine but was forced to transfer the money to a new trust account after Standard Bank broke ties with the Gupta-owned company.
“The Rehabilitation Fund balance was moved from Optimum Mine Rehabilitation Trust’s account with Standard Bank to Bank of Baroda in June 2016,” the company said.
“This transfer was due to Standard Bank’s closure of all company accounts. This is the only movement of money from this account.”
It said the transfer was effected with the full permission of the business rescue practitioners.
“Any suggestions that the Rehabilitation Fund has been drawn down upon are absolutely untrue and defamatory.”
Questions were raised about the transfer of more than R1.3 billion because it was included in a list of transactions flagged as suspicious by the Financial Intelligence Centre and submitted as part of a court application filed by Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan on Friday.
Gordhan is seeking a declaratory order that he is obliged or allowed to intervene in the decision of four banks earlier this year to close the accounts of the politically connected Gupta family.
Oakbay said it would release a statement in response to the minister’s affidavit on Tuesday morning.
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