The report has turned out that French police officials have raided the Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance Paris offices and a previously owned aluminium manufacturing unit in a widening of a criminal investigation into the metal tycoon’s establishment.
In 2021, the Paris Prosecutor’s Office rolled out an investigation into Sanjeev Gupta’s business operations in France over a claim for the “misuse of corporate assets” and “money laundering”, reduplicating a separate probe by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), a non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom that investigates and prosecutes serious or complex fraud and corruption in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The CEO and Founder of GFG Alliance, Sanjeev Gupta, who once was complemented by the politicians as the “saviour of steel” for his liberation of rejected plants and foundries, his group has countered impressions of fraudulent trading following his principal banker Greensill Capital bankrupted in the previous year.
However, the existing week’s raids incorporated the Dunkirk Aluminium smelter, the largest aluminium smelter in France, Which Sanjeev Gupta owned Alvance Aluminium lost its control in 2021, when American Industrial Partners, an American private equity partnership acquired the smelter.
Furthermore, as per our report, the raid at the Dunkirk aluminium smelter was done by around 10 armed policemen, who arrived in the early morning and remained there for a whole day to cross-examine executives and made copies of emails fetched from servers.
The person, who has kept us updated also added that the police officials’ inquiry intense on multiple transactions accomplished when the smelter was under GFG’s administration, similar to a transaction whereby funds transferred was done from Dunkirk were used to pay a $25 million legal settlement with Rio Tinto, a long-time dispute that has remained due running over the acquisition of the smelter from the metal and mining in 2018.
The spokesperson from Dunkirk aluminium confirmed, “The criminal investigative division of the French National Police inspected the offices of Aluminium Dunkerque and the company was fully cooperating with any investigation by the French authorities.”
“The $25 million payment to Rio Tinto settled an outstanding claim for the supply of energy at ‘a discount’ along with an agreement to waive all other pre-existing claims between the two groups”, GFG said.
“The transaction was managed by former executives of GFG that have since left the business and was funded by AIP to clear the way for its disputed acquisition of Aluminium Dunkirk,” GFG added.
“GFG has investigated the query from the French authorities and determined that there was no wrongdoing in its French businesses relating to this or any other transaction, and it is cooperating fully with the French authorities.”
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