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UAE and BRICS – implications for illicit financial flows and extradition of the Guptas

UAE and BRICS – implications for illicit financial flows and extradition of the Guptas
Illustrative image / sources, from left: Ajay Gupta (Photo: Gallo Images / Business Day / Martin Rhodes) / Atul Gupta (Photo: Gallo Images / Business Day / Robert Botha)
Josia Moyo, Mamonare Malapane and Letjedi Thabang Mabinane
By Josia Moyo, Mamonare Malapane and Letjedi Thabang Mabinane
3 Jul 2024
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The Gupta extradition case ought to be among the key points of bilateral engagement between South Africa and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as a first step towards the advancement of meaningful dialogue and strong cooperation on combating illicit financial flows (IFFs).

In August 2023, the BRICS grouping – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – invited six other countries to join the alliance from 1 January 2024, paving the way to what is now casually referred to as BRICS+.

The invited countries were Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Argentina. However, Argentina’s new president, Javier Milei, withdrew the country from joining BRICS after a review of decisions taken by the preceding government.  

The expansion of the BRICS group undoubtedly presents new opportunities and challenges for both existing and new members. Much of the attention from political commentators and popular media has been centred around the economic profile of new members and the implications of an expanded BRICS on the US-led international order.

There is little attention towards detailed prospects for bilateral cooperation that BRICS expansion presents for both new and existing member states. As argued by Alice Pannier, strong bilateral cooperation is an important phase of engaging in international negotiations, as mutual interests are first developed on a bilateral level to build coalitions and more effectively highlight those interests in multilateral settings.

Thus, the strength, coherence, and unity of the BRICS+ grouping is dependent on the nature of relations that exist between individual BRICS+ member states.

Against this backdrop, this piece narrows down the prospects thereof for bilateral cooperation of BRICS+ member states by giving special attention to South Africa/UAE relations. We seek to shed light on some of the areas in which South Africa should foster engagement with the UAE through the BRICS+ framework. We particularly pay special attention to illicit financial flows and the Gupta extradition case.

Illicit financial flows and the Gupta extradition case


One of the immediate areas of engagement that BRICS expansion presents for South Africa and the UAE is on illicit financial flows (IFFs). IFFs as defined by the Internal Monetary Fund (IMF) are the “movement of money across borders that is illegal in its source (e.g. corruption, smuggling), its transfer (e.g. tax evasion), or its use (e.g. terrorist financing)”.

Illustrative image | Sources: Ajay Gupta (Photo: Gallo Images / Business Day / Martin Rhodes) / Atul Gupta (Photo: Gallo Images / Business Day / Robert Botha)



IFFs have significant adverse effects on the macroeconomies of countries where they originate, transit, and/or are integrated. According to the OECD, South Africa loses roughly between $3.5-billion and $5-billion to IFFs every year.

This estimate, which represents approximately 1-1.5% of South African annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP), is derived from estimates of between $40-billion and $54-billion in hidden South African-owned assets held in international financial centres (IFCs).

The country was listed in the 2022 Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) grey list (countries with high risks of IFFs) due to its failure to combat money laundering and terrorist financing. To this day, the country is still battling to get off the FATF list.

There is no doubt that IFFs deprive the country of the necessary financial resources needed to repay its debts and address internal socioeconomic challenges such as high levels of poverty, inequality, and unemployment, notwithstanding socioeconomic constraints posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict, and the ongoing crisis in the Middle East.

The UAE is considered one of many enablers of global corruption, crime and IFFs. In 2022, the country was also grey-listed by both the FATF and the European Union (EU) amid risks associated with money laundering and terrorist financing relating to banks, precious metals and stones, as well as property. Matthew Page and Jodi Vittori argue that the UAE’s prosperity is largely maintained by the relentless flow of illicit funds sourced from corruption and crime. The authors further argue that these proceeds have “helped to fuel the emirate’s booming real estate market; enrich its bankers, moneychangers, and business elites; and turn Dubai into a major gold trading hub”.

South Africa and the UAE are party to the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), which mandates that they cooperate with each other in ensuring that crimes related to corruption are prosecuted.

Extradition treaty


In 2018, the two countries also signed an extradition treaty that they both ratified in 2021. By definition, this meant that both states would be bound to deliver “an accused or convicted person to the state where he is accused of, or has been convicted of, a crime by the state in which he is resident at the time”.

However, in 2023, the UAE rejected South Africa’s request to extradite Atul and Rajesh Gupta – State Capture-implicated brothers who fled South Africa while facing charges of money laundering and political corruption. This led to a diplomatic squabble between the two countries with South Africa’s then Minister of Justice, Ronald Lamola, accusing the UAE of “non-cooperation”, which he described as highly unprecedented in the arena of extradition requests.

It is crucial to highlight that the recent joint statement of the BRICS ministers of foreign affairs also reaffirms the group’s commitment to “promote BRICS cooperation in the prevention of and fight against corruption and continue to implement the relevant international agreements in this regard, in particular the United Nations Convention against Corruption”.

Therefore, we believe that the BRICS+ forum creates an opportunity for dialogue and cooperation between South Africa and the UAE through the above-mentioned agreements and commitments.

Despite the UAE’s different view of South Africa’s extradition request regarding the Gupta brothers, we believe that the spirit of dialogue and open communication reigns in BRICS. For instance, China and India are two BRICS countries whose border disputes and geopolitical tensions have received great attention from media and scholars.

Despite their differences, there is no doubt that the BRICS+ forum has created room for dialogue and increased cooperation between the two countries. The most recent example is their bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the 15th BRICS Summit last year where both countries agreed to scale down tensions along their disputed border following another skirmish in late 2022. Even in the absence of the BRICS forums, the two counterparts have engaged in high-level meetings previously in a bid to put their differences aside.

Therefore, the Gupta extradition case ought to be among the key points of bilateral engagement between South Africa and the UAE as a first step towards the advancement of meaningful dialogue and strong cooperation on combating IFFs.

While many believe that tackling IFFs is a technical task that is too complicated, we argue that it is a matter of political will and strong international cooperation. This is proven by the African continent, which is leading the way in this effort – last year, an additional €1.69-billion was made in revenues through “voluntary disclosures, information sharing mechanisms, and vigorous offshore investigation”.

Therefore, such efforts and practices can be replicated by South Africa and the UAE through bilateral cooperation, and consequently championed within the overall BRICS+ grouping. DM

The authors are with the South African BRICS Youth Association (SABYA): Josia Moyo is Deputy Director: Research & Policy Development; Mamonare Malapane is Senior Researcher; and Letjedi Thabang Mabinane Director: Research, Policy Development and M&E.

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