Varun Gupta

The Gupta family is a wealthy Indian-born South African family whose most notable members are the brothers Ajay, Atul, Rajesh "Tony" Gupta as well as Atul Gupta's nephews Varun, and US-based Ashish and Amol. The Gupta family owns a business empire spanning computer equipment, media and mining, and has been the focus of widespread scrutiny because of its close ties to Jacob Zuma during his Presidency. In 2016 Atul Gupta became the seventh-wealthiest person in South Africa, with an estimated net worth of R10.7 billion (US$773.47 million), based on JSE-listed holdings. The family migrated from the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh to South Africa in 1993, shortly before the country's first democratic elections, to establish Sahara Computers. The family is based at the Sahara Estate in Saxonwold, Johannesburg, a compound comprising at least four mansions and Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The family's strong ties to former South African president Jacob Zuma, both personally and through its company Oakbay Investments, have been the subject of extensive international scrutiny and caused much political controversy. The ties have led to widespread claims of corruption, undue influence and of state capture – a term which is used to allege that the government undertakes activities and decisions, decides some high level appointments, and determines control of some state enterprises, for the Gupta family's direct or indirect benefit, or in agreement with the family. In 2015 the Guptas' influence on the presidency was described by anti-corruption campaigner and former trades unionist Zwelinzima Vavi as being a "shadow government". Multiple MPs and ministers have stated that they were offered government positions by, or on behalf of, the Gupta family, in return for beneficial commercial decisions once appointed. In 2017 it was discovered that British PR company Bell Pottinger, acting on behalf of Gupta-owned Oakbay Investments, had deliberately manipulated and inflamed racial tensions, stirred up racial hatred, and made accusations of "white monopoly capital", using a large number of fake Twitter and other accounts online, as part of a campaign portraying Oakbay and those connected to it as victims, apparently intended to deflect corruption claims. Bell Pottinger subsequently collapsed in the wake of the scandal. In October 2017, it was reported that the FBI had opened an investigation into Gupta nephews Ashish and Amol, who are US Citizens, resident in Texas, as a result of payments received from a Gupta-linked company in the United Arab Emirates. On 16 February 2018, two days after Zuma had stepped down as president of South Africa, Ajay Gupta was declared a fugitive from justice by South African authorities after failing to turn himself over to the authorities.