The bankruptcy last year of India’s Jet Airways might be of little interest to South Africans but for one fact: the airline has just been bought by a consortium led by Gupta associate Murari Lal Jalan.<\/p>\n
Likewise, the glitzy launch of a number of major property developments in Uzbekistan would normally not make the local news. Except that these multi-billion-rand developments are being undertaken by the self-same Jalan, in co-operation with members of the Gupta family.<\/p>\n
Jalan has via his lawyers denied any “relationship, business or otherwise”, with the infamous brothers Ajay, Atul and Rajesh Gupta, or that he acted as a front for them. He admitted to employing two of their children, their nephew and their son-in-law.<\/p>\n
Last year, Jet Airways entered what in India is called a corporate insolvency resolution process \u2013 something akin to South Africa\u2019s business rescue.<\/p>\n
A number of consortia made bids, but on Saturday, creditors voted in favour of a consortium consisting of Jalan and a UK venture capital outfit called Kalrock. The price was reportedly in the region of R2.2-billion.<\/p>\n
Kalrock did not respond to questions. The company is part of the Fritsch Group, an investment vehicle founded by German entrepreneur Florian Fritsch<\/a>. The group website<\/a> calls Fritsch “a true conscious capitalist who ensures a positive impact to society”.<\/p>\n Last year amaBhungane revealed<\/a> how the broader Jalan and Gupta families cemented ties through one of the Gupta clan\u2019s signature mega-weddings, which saw Shivangi Jalan marry Atul Gupta\u2019s son Shashank Singhala, then 21.<\/p>\n Murari Lal Jalan is Shivangi\u2019s uncle.<\/p>\n London law firm Kobre & Kim, which boasts of its \u201caggressive\u201d approach to solving client problems, replied on Jalan’s behalf<\/a> for this article. It wrote: \u201cIt is a matter of public record that Mr Jalan\u2019s brother\u2019s daughter is married into the Gupta family. Mr Jalan accordingly knows some of the Gupta family through that extended family connection in India.<\/p>\n “However, the private marriage carries no business link or interest between the Jalan family and the Guptas. Mr Jalan and his brother maintain separate business entities. Their personal relationships have no connection with their business activities, which are separate and distinct.\u201d<\/p>\n There was at least one reason to ask whether the Guptas were involved in any way in Jalan\u2019s bid for Jet Airways: their alleged efforts to lobby on behalf of Jet in the past.<\/p>\n Former ANC MP Vytjie Mentor testified at the Zondo commission that she was offered the post of minister of public enterprises in 2010 if she got SAA to scrap its Mumbai route so that Jet could take over.<\/p>\n This offer was allegedly made by Ajay Gupta at the Gupta compound in Saxonwold.<\/p>\n Mentor testified she refused to take the bait and instead Malusi Gigaba was appointed.<\/p>\n Former SAA chief executive Sizakele Mzimela told Zondo that, shortly after her appointment, Gigaba called SAA executives to a meeting with controversial Jet founder Naresh Goyal on 10 January 2011.<\/p>\n They waited for two hours only to have Goyal show up and angrily demand that SAA cede the route. Gigaba said nothing, she testified.<\/p>\n Jet was also the airline used by the Gupta family to land their guests at the Waterkloof air base for the infamous Sun City wedding<\/a> in 2013.<\/p>\n Jet\u2019s bankruptcy coincides with Goyal\u2019s fall from grace. The man who allegedly felt entitled to shout at SAA bosses in front of a sitting minister is now being investigated for money laundering in India.<\/p>\n Jalan, via his lawyers, said he did not know Goyal and that amaBhungane\u2019s questions were the first time he had heard about the Guptas lobbying for Jet in South Africa.<\/p>\n He also denied that any member of the Gupta family has anything to do with his Jet bid. \u201cNone of the individuals connected with the Gupta family … are either directly or indirectly involved in the Jet Airways bid. The Gupta family, extended or otherwise, is not funding the bid.”<\/p>\n The Gupta brothers may not be involved with the Jet rescue, but the broader family have joined the Jalans embarking on a truly epic project: property development in Uzbekistan.<\/p>\n This venture appears to have drawn in a big chunk of the extended Gupta family and at least one notorious middleman.<\/p>\n [sidebarContentSingleImage target=modal url=https:\/\/amabhungane.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/201013-MJ-Developers-the-Jalans-and-the-Guptas-3.0-1-smaller.png][\/sidebarContentSingleImage]<\/p>\n The vehicle is MJ Developers, a property group set up in the Central Asian country with four mega-developments already announced. The sheer scale of these plans make them seem almost fantastical.<\/p>\n *See Minerva City<\/span><\/a><\/span> and Lake City<\/a> and Namangan Square<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Murari Lal Jalan has evidently invested heavily in his public image in Uzbekistan as a benevolent billionaire investor and philanthropist. On his group\u2019s website<\/a> there are articles describing him as \u201cintelligent investor in diverse sectors\u201d, \u201can eminent figure in the business fraternity\u201d, \u201ca man who has a global vision\u201d and \u201cleader, chairman and visionary\u201d among other things.<\/p>\n Jalan is the face of the group, but glued to his side and representing the company at public events is Gupta in-law and Aakash Garg of Sun City wedding fame. That extravaganza saw Garg marry Vega Gupta, the Gupta brothers\u2019 niece Achla.<\/p>\n According to press releases and media reports from Uzbekistan, Garg is the \u201cvice-president of the marketing department\u201d of MJ Developers.<\/p>\n Jalan\u2019s lawyers called Garg a \u201cmarketing advisor to MJ Developers” in response to amaBhungane\u2019s questions. On a company website<\/a> he is described as a \u201cpart of the family\u201d and one of the \u201ccore contributors to convert Mr Jalan\u2019s ventures into grand success\u201d.<\/p>\n At one stage Garg was touted as more than just an employee or advisor.<\/p>\n AmaBhungane previously showed that he was recorded as the 50% shareholder of at least part of the new Uzbek property empire, dubbed \u201cMinerva World of Knowledge\u201d.<\/p>\n Minerva entails a proposed academic city-in-a-city sporting multiple colleges, residential areas and sports grounds in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent.<\/p>\n Garg\u2019s shareholding was reflected in company registration documents<\/a> dating from last year. The co-signatory and other shareholder in this document is Murari Lal Jalan.<\/p>\n Garg was also present at an event in August to lay the foundation stone of the first building at the promised sprawling Minerva site.<\/p>\n [sidebarContentSingleImage target=modal url=https:\/\/amabhungane.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/2.-Group-photo-of-Murari-and-Ankit-and-Garg-for-Minerva-project.jpg]Ankit Jalan (second from left), Murari Lal Jalan (middle) and Aakash Garg (far right).[\/sidebarContentSingleImage]<\/p>\n Jalan\u2019s lawyers denied that Garg or any other member of the Gupta family funded or held shares in MJ Developers or its subsidiaries like Minerva.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are instructed that Mr Garg and Mr Jalan considered a 50\/50 joint venture in Uzbekistan. However, Mr Garg withdrew from the project before the company began trading. Mr Garg did not invest any funds and has no investment or ownership interest in MJ Developers or any of its projects or entities,\u201d the lawyers said.<\/p>\n \u201cMJ Developers and its associated entities are 100% owned by Mr. [Murari Lal] Jalan (save for one project which is owned by his nephew), and have never received any funding or investment from the Gupta family, directly or indirectly.\u201d<\/p>\n Jalan\u2019s version does not account for the obvious involvement of several other members of the Gupta family and a key associate, amply demonstrated by MJ Developers\u2019 own promotion of its projects in Uzbekistan.<\/p>\n Photos from one glitzy MJ Developers event in Uzbekistan in February this year show them posing together with Uzbek politicians.<\/p>\n [sidebarContentSingleImage target=modal url=https:\/\/amabhungane.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/4.-14-Feb-2020-Meeting-with-Garg-and-Varun.jpg]Aakash Garg (far left) and Varun Gupta (third from left), pictured at a February 14, 2020 meeting.[\/sidebarContentSingleImage]<\/p>\n Apart from Garg, this event included Kamal Singhala (Ajay Gupta\u2019s son) and Varun Gupta (son of Achla, the sister of the more famous three Gupta brothers).<\/p>\n A more surprising presence is Ashok Narayan, the one-time \u201cadvisor\u201d to Ace Magashule; he was the Guptas\u2019 point man in the Estina dairy scandal and a key cog in the Gupta machine.<\/p>\n Photos from another launch event for a MJ Developers project show Srikant Singhala (Atul Gupta\u2019s son) joining the two Jalans on stage alongside Uzbek dignitaries.<\/p>\n After initially skirting the question, Jalan\u2019s lawyers admitted that Srikant, Kamal and Varun were in fact employees of MJ Developers.<\/p>\n They denied that Narayan or another apparent Gupta associate seen in the pictures had “any role” in MJ Developers, and played down the importance of the Gupta children in the organisation.<\/p>\n [sidebarContentSingleImage target=modal url=https:\/\/amabhungane.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/5.-Namangan-ceremony-with-Singhala.png]Srikant Singhala (far left), Murari Lal Jalan (second from left) and Ankit Jalan (far right).[\/sidebarContentSingleImage]<\/p>\n They said, \u201cWith respect to the referenced event, the five individuals named were part of a large gathering of more than 200 people from India and the Middle East at the launch of one of MJ Developers\u2019 projects.<\/p>\n \u201cThese individuals did not share the stage with Mr Jalan and, following the launch events, many individuals came to meet and shake hands with Mr Jalan and were photographed in the process. This is not an indication of any special business or personal relationship with Mr Jalan and\/or any unique privilege(s) granted to the individuals photographed.\u201d<\/p>\n But in another indication of seniority, on at least one occasion Kamal Singhala (Ajay Gupta\u2019s son) was the one showing the governor of Namangan region<\/a> around the building site of the Namangan Square development.<\/p>\n In its previous reporting amaBhungane showed<\/a> how the Guptas were kept informed of a Jalan deal with one of the Gupta associates as far back as 2015.<\/p>\n Recent court proceedings involving Garg in Bermuda have revealed more interactions.<\/p>\n In January 2018 Garg\u2019s Dubai-based company AGEV Investment signed a loan facility for $5-million<\/a> with Jalan\u2019s company AgioImage. The next month Jalan reciprocated by extending a loan facility of $20-million<\/a> to AGEV.<\/p>\n A month after that loan agreement was signed, AGEV proceeded to try and buy the Guptas\u2019 airplanes stuck in South Africa as an ostensible independent investor. The attempt was thwarted by the Reserve Bank, as amaBhungane reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe loan extended by Mr Jalan to Mr Garg [or] to entities controlled by him was a commercial, arm\u2019s length transaction. Mr Jalan denies any suggestion of impropriety in respect of that transaction,\u201d said Jalan\u2019s lawyers.<\/p>\n Jalan also cut the Guptas a cheque for R12-million to help pay for another of the family\u2019s mega-weddings early last year.<\/p>\n The lawyers have an explanation for this too. According to them \u201cMr Jalan\u2019s brother wished to make a contribution as is a common custom between Indian families associated by marriage or engagement\u201d. Jalan however paid on behalf of his brother because the latter owed Murari money, they said.<\/p>\n [sidebarContentSingleImage target=modal url=https:\/\/amabhungane.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/201013-Where-are-the-Guptas-Now_-3.3-with-designations-fixed-smaller.png][\/sidebarContentSingleImage]<\/p>\n In other words, Jalan did not really give the Guptas money despite having written the cheque.<\/p>\n Then there is another plane-related deal from 2018, again tying the Jalans to the Guptas.<\/p>\n In India, Gupta investment company LCR Investments owned 68.5% of another company called Heritage Aviation, a licensed carrier with a single jet registered in its own name. The company has however functioned for many years as the operator of aircraft owned by the Gupta family via companies in Dubai under lease agreements.<\/p>\n On 13 July 2018, LCR Investments entered into an agreement<\/a>\u00a0with a Jalan holding company in India, Bengal Orion Financial Hub.<\/p>\n The Guptas were selling their stake in Heritage to Bengal Orion for INR68.5-million (R13-million at the time). Ankit Jalan, Murari’s nephew, signed on Bengal Orion’s behalf and then became a director of Heritage.<\/p>\n There is some dispute over whether the transaction involved Murari Lal Jalan.<\/p>\nFrom SA to Uzbekistan<\/h5>\n
In the background: more deals<\/h5>\n