South Africa, World
UK: Lord Hain to question role of UK and European financial institutions in State Capture
Anticipation is mounting in relation to an oral question that Labour peer, Lord Peter Hain of Neath, is due to table in the House of Lords on Thursday about the role of UK and European Union-based financial institutions in facilitating a transnational money laundering network that helped prop up the Gupta family empire. By MARIANNE THAMM.
UPDATE as of 22:00 on Wednesday 18 October 2017:
It has now been confirmed that Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond has passed Lord Hain’s concerns to the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), National Crime Agency (NCA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). More to follow…
The South African-born Lord Hain, a veteran anti-apartheid campaigner and former Labour Party minister, is expected to ask whether UK law enforcement agencies, including the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), would be probing the role of global banking institutions in facilitating, wittingly or unwittingly, illicit financial flows from the capture of the state in South Africa.
KPMG, McKinsey and SAP have all been implicated and all three of these institutions are facing various investigations for their business dealings with the Gupta family and South Africa’s SOEs.
It was Lord Hain who tabled a question in September about the work PR firm Bell Pottinger had performed for the Gupta family and President Jacob Zuma’s son Duduzane.
At the time he confirmed to Daily Maverick that he would be writing to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, as he suspected that British and European Banks might have been involved in money laundering through Dubai, Hong Kong and other financial centres. Two of Britain’s largest banks, Standard Chartered and HSBC, have a significant footprint in these jurisdictions. DM
Photo: The new Welsh Secretary Peter Hain departs 10 Downing Street following a cabinet meeting in London, Britain, 09 June 2009. EPA/ANDY RAIN.
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