JSE-accredited sponsor River Group has given Gupta-family owned Oakbay Resources and Energy notice it intends dropping its account.

“The reason for River Group’s termination of their services is due to their revised assessment of association risk surrounding the company and its shareholders‚” Oakbay said in Monday’s statement.

The departure of Oakbay’s second JSE sponsor — shareholders were informed Sasfin Capital had given notice on April 5 2016‚ in the same statement saying auditors KPMG had quit with immediate effect — comes after Friday’s results statement in which current auditors SizweNtsalubaGobod flagged a “reportable irregularity in terms of the Auditing Profession Act“.

SizweNtsalubaGobod said it had reported the matter to the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors.

River Group’s termination of its contract with Oakbay also comes as journalists trawl through 87GB of e-mails dating back to 2012 which have brought to light the Gupta family’s corrupt dealings with government officials and state owned enterprise executives.

Oakbay was left without a sponsor — a JSE requirement — for three months from June 1 to September 1 after Sasfin Capital gave notice it was no longer willing to represent the controversial mining group on March 15.

Oakbay said River Group would continue to act as its sponsor for a minimum of two months‚ until July 31.

Oakbay shares remained untraded at 2.22pm on Monday‚ with a wide spread between an offer to buy the shares at R5.80 each and an offer to sell at R30.