108 fake accounts in AgustaWestland helicopter deal
Accused paid kickbacks of Rs 400 crore via fake accounts to swing deal
New Delhi: The CBI’s investigations into the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland helicopter deal have revealed that the alleged middlemen, Carlo Gerosa and Guido Haschke, created 108 fictitious companies in the US and 15 in the United Kingdom to route kickbacks to India.
Besides, kickbacks were also routed through fake companies created in the Netherlands, Canada, Hong Kong, Norway, Malaysia, Bel-gium, Turkey, Thailand, Germany, Spain, Japan, Australia, Finland, Sin-gapore, Italy and Switzerland.
“It has been found that Gerosa and Haschke were allegedly paid kickbacks totalling 51 million euros (around Rs 400 crore) to swing the deal for AgustaWestland. Haschke and Gerosa managed to send 5.6 million euros to India and kept the remaining amount of 24.30 million euros with themselves in the account of IDS Tunisia,” sources said.
“Documents provided by the Italian investigators to Indian probe agencies give detailed information about 108 fictitious US-based firms that were created to route illegal funds to India,” sources said.
The accused also created five fictitious Canada-based firms to transfer money to Indian nationals named by the CBI in its FIR. The probe has established that kickbacks were paid to seven Indian nationals in four instalments after awarding the contract to the Anglo-Italian defence manufacturer by the Air Headquarters in March 2005.
“While the accused firm allegedly paid 640,612 euros in 2007, payments of around 977,263 euros were made in 2008,” sources said. The agency has recorded the statements of all suspects in this regard.
The CBI had, on March 13, 2012, booked former IAF chief S.P. Tyagi and 12 others under charges of bribery and corruption. The former IAF chief, his cousins Sanjeev, Rajeev, and Sandeep, European middlemen Gerosa, Michel and Haschke were among 13 individuals named in the FIR as accused.
Six companies — Finmeccanica, AgustaWestland, Mohali-based IDS Infotech, Chandigarh-based Aeromatrix, IDS Tunisia and IDS Mauritius — had also been booked by the CBI.