analysis

The US government has slapped financial sanctions on the Gupta network, freezing any assets they may have in America and prohibiting US persons doing business with them. SA officials rejected any suggestion that the US sanctions were a quid pro quo for Pretoria agreeing to extradite former Mozambican finance minister Manual Chang to the US rather than Mozambique

The US Treasury Department announced that it had designated the brothers Ajay, Atul and Rajesh Gupta and their close business associate Salim Essa to be sanctioned under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act for corruption, including bribery and misappropriation of state assets.

The US move appeared to have been coordinated with the SA government as Minister of Justice Ronald Lamola issued a statement soon after, welcoming the action taken by the US "to ensure that the South African interests of justice unfold without any hindrance."

The US said Treasury's Office of Foreign AssetsControl (OFAC) was sanctioning them as "members of a significant corruption network in South Africa that leveraged overpayments on government contracts, bribery, and other corrupt acts to fund political contributions and influence government actions."

Washington's action means that all property and interests in property of the three Gupta brothers...