The Globe and Mail reports in its Monday edition that Canada's export agency lost money on a $450-million loan to a scandal-plagued South African state company whose former top executives are facing corruption charges for allegedly inflating contracts and embezzling funds (all figures U.S.). The Globe's Geoffrey York writers that Export Development Canada provided the loan to state-owned Transnet in 2015 to support a $1.2-billion contract under which Transnet ordered 240 locomotives from Bombardier. Former top executives of Transnet and an ex-cabinet minister are currently before the courts in South Africa facing corruption charges for allegedly inflating the cost of the massive $5-billion locomotive deal, which involved the purchase of 1,064 locomotives from Bombardier and three other manufacturers. An inquiry into state corruption heard testimony that Transnet was infiltrated by cronies of the Gupta brothers, an Indian business family whose close relationship with former president Jacob Zuma was the main trigger for the inquiry. The EDC loan helped the Guptas buy a Bombardier jet, which the EDC later acknowledged could have been used for illegal activities. EDC did not divulge the amount of its losses on the debacle.