Police raids at French sites of steel magnate Gupta’s GFG

The French headquarters of British metallic rich person Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance and a foundry had been raided with the aid of investigators probing suspicions of money laundering and abuse of company property, the agency said Tuesday.

The raids this week on the Paris company office and the Aluminium Dunkerque foundry had been a part of a preliminary investigation opened in July final yr and is being conducted by way of a specialized financial crime brigade, stated a supply close to the case, confirming a record in the Financial Times.

Gupta and his Liberty Steel firm turned into as soon seen as the saviour of British steelmaking.

But Liberty Steel, one of the world’s top steel groups, has been fighting for survival following the March 2021 collapse of Greensill Capital, the main lender to its parent company Gupta Family Group (GFG) Alliance.

British authorities are also investigating the GFG Alliance.

“The French authorities came to our offices in Paris last week as part of the investigation underway,” a GFG Alliance spokesman told AFP.

“We strongly reject any suggestion of reprehensible actions and we continue to cooperate fully with French authorities to help them complete the case rapidly,” he added.

The French case initially targeted a state-guaranteed loan made by Greensill Capital to GFG-owned foundry, Liberty Aluminium Poitou, said the source familiar with the case.

It later improved to include Aluminium Dunkerque, Europe’s largest foundry, whose takeover last October by means of the American Industrial Partners (AIP) private fairness fund is contested by means of GFG.

According to the FT, the probe is looking at a deal concluded with Swiss commodities institution Glencore to dam the takeover and using 25 million euros from the foundry’s debts to settle a felony dispute with Rio Tinto, the Anglo-Australian mining organization which bought the foundry to GFG Alliance in 2018.