WHERE in the world are the Guptas?
In Russia it would appear, if the flight radar of their private jet ZS-OAK is anything to go by.
The Guptas may have had to fly commercial airlines for a month when their jet was apparently grounded over the festive season, but it wasn’t long before their private wings were flying high again.
The Gupta family’s private jet, a Bombardier Global 6000 business aircraft flew from Dubai to Zurich on 13 December , where it remained for six days before taking a 36-minute hop to EuroAirport Basel Mulhouse Freiburg in Switzerland.
There the plane stayed put for more than a month before taking to the skies again on 25 January.
It was widely reported in December that the Guptas had fallen behind in their scheduled repayments of a loan that financed ZS-OAK.
According to the Financial Mail, the Canadian government’s export credit agency, which provided a soft loan for 80% of the finance required to buy the jet, had instituted legal action against the Guptas for defaulting on their payments and wanted to seize the aircraft to settle the outstanding debt.
Export Development Canada provides finance to international customers to buy Canadian products.
Export Development, the paper said, had previously grounded the plane at Lanseria airport for 48 hours due to non-payment and that a bank provided the guarantee and the aircraft was released.
Export Development loaned the family $41 million to purchase their private jet. – NEWS24
