Hi, and welcome to another Emlex podcast. I'm Anorega, managing editor for Emlex's London Bureau.

Today we'll be looking at a corruption scandal that started in South Africa, but is now

piquing the interest of regulators worldwide. The starting point? A massive data leak, hundreds of

gigabytes of information that exposed the way

an influential South African family, the Guptas, conducted business.

In South Africa, the prime focus has been on the Gaptus undue influence on national politics.

But at Emelix, we've been looking more closely at the ramifications for international corporations in the country,

and more recently abroad too.

With me, Ben Lucas, Emlex's bribery and corruption correspondent in London.

Hi, Ben. Thanks for joining me.

Hi, Anna.

Ben, you've been following this story quite closely.

Just taking a step back, can you sum up how it started?

So, yeah, as you said, there was this data leak that has now been coined the Gupta leaks and this is about the Gupta family in

particular their three brothers AJ Attle and Rajesh Gupta originally from India but arrived in

South Africa in the early 1990s and have since established a significant business empire there. And what the leaks show

is how the Guptas have allegedly used their extensive business network to wield undue influence

over the South African government and state-owned enterprises in the country there.

So it seems that this is a political scandal that has embarrassed the political elite of South

Africa, but as the hundreds of emails have been unveiling names of international companies

as well, we have McKinsey, SAP Software, Lieber, just to name a few.

In what way have these companies become involved with the Guptas and what are they suspected of doing?

...