An investigation into irregularities at the Habib Bank of Pakistan shows that the bank ignored rules when opening an account for Duduzane Zuma.
The Pakistan Reserve Bank is following up on findings by the Financial Action Task Force, a global watchdog for illegal financial activities, which has led to Pakistan being placed on the task force’s monitoring list.
According to a version of Bloomberg’s report, Habib opened an account in June 2016 for Duduzane Zuma. When the account was opened, there was a “waiver of proof of income”.
This account was opened when South African banks closed the accounts that the Gupta brothers had with them.
The Guptas, who have since moved to Dubai, have denied any guilt. They say there were political reasons why their bank accounts were closed in South Africa.
Duduzane Zuma had close ties with the Guptas. He was a director of at least 11 companies that had family members on the board.
In 2017, Duduzane Zume complained in an open letter to then Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan that all his local accounts were closed due to political pressure.
Rudi Krause, a lawyer at BDK Attorneys representing Duduzane Zuma, said he had passed questions on Bloomberg’s Habib account to his client, but that he had not yet received feedback.
