PS Don’t forget the Global Portfolio webinar today at 12:30pm SA time, if you haven’t registered it’s not too late, just click here.
The powerful can never be reminded enough that attacking the less resourced is not a one way bet. Especially in this new era where information yearns to be free – making the truth more powerful than ever.
Yesterday we submitted a formal complaint against UK legal firm Schillings which was hired by the Guptas last March to use a baseless and spurious complaint to shut down Biznews. With their limitless resources, they would likely have gone ahead with the case had Peter Bruce not opined in BDLive that we were sure to receive financial support from the business community to fight back.
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Now that an army of cockroaches is emerging from the Gupta kitchen, the facilitators in suits should not be allowed to skulk away into their expensive offices. Even though our attorneys say there’s a clear case for damages against them, getting distracted by a lengthy court battle is not my idea of fun. But we are determined that Schillings must answer to the relevant authorities and atone for their part in facilitating the Gupta plunder.
So here’s the email I dispatched yesterday to the UK’s Solicitors Regulation Authority. Let’s hope the complaint receives the attention it deserves.
Dear Sir/Madam,
Please find herewith the grounds for a formal complaint to the Solicitors Regulation Authority involving the behaviour of one of your member firms, Schillings, due to unethical conduct.
In March 2016, Schillings acted on the instruction of the Gupta Family and PR company Bell Pottinger to specifically target Biznews.com by threatening us with legal action. For context, Biznews is an independent online media company wholly owned and funded by myself.
Recent disclosures in the South African media – forthcoming as a result of more than 100,000 emails leaked from Gupta family computers – reveal that Bell Pottinger was paid handsomely to drive a communications campaign whose intention was to stir racial friction in South Africa.
Given the country’s history of racially-based subjugation of the majority by a racial minority, the irresponsible nature of such a campaign is obvious. The Gupta/Bell Pottinger agenda, however, took no account of potential consequences as its purpose was to distract attention away from Gupta pillaging of billions of rands from SA state owned enterprises.
For its role, Bell Pottinger is being subjected to a disciplinary hearing by the Public Relations and Communications Association after a complaint was laid by South Africa’s official opposition political party, the Democratic Alliance. On July 10, Bell Pottinger’s CEO issued a “full, unequivocal and absolute” apology. Click here.
An article published this week by SA’s biggest website News24, which draws on information contained in some of the leaked emails, supports our claim that Schillings should be subjected to a similar disciplinary hearing.
The emails show the Guptas, their managers and Bell Pottinger decided to “make an example” and to shut down Biznews to prevent further reporting on their corrupt practices. Among the instructions was Schillings be ordered to “go for the kill”. Click here.
In March 2016 Schillings issued a threatening letter to Biznews with the full intention of forcing Biznews to incur legal expenses which a business with its modest resources would struggle to meet.
Its true agenda had nothing to do with the law. It has now been disclosed through the leaked emails as a clear abuse of the legal system with the goal of shutting up Biznews, either temporarily or permanently. In so doing it intended to scare off other media and thus allow the Guptas to continue their corrupt activities without scrutiny from the Fourth Estate.
We assert that Schillings was a willing accomplice in promoting this agenda and thus directly complicit in promoting criminal activity.
Further evidence of this intention is that no similar legal threat was made by Schillings against either Bloomberg or the Financial Times, whose articles formed the bulk of what was published in Biznews. The Schillings letter and our response is accessible through this link.
We believe these actions by a supposedly reputable London law firm, a signatory to your laudable code of ethics, demands the greatest possible censure from the Solicitors Regulation Authority.
We maintain the maximum possible fine should be levied on the firm, and that this be a significant multiple of the fee received (around £100,000) for its part in the baseless legal threat against Biznews.
We recommend this sum be paid to a South African-based charity that promotes racial reconciliation. It will serve as some small compensation to the South African people for Schillings’ role in this disgusting affair.
Looking forward to your earliest response.
Best wishes
Alec Hogg
PS I have copied James Harding, the BBC’s Director of News. The UK’s national broadcaster recently carried a related piece on BBC Newsnight as per this link.
