Ex-AgustaWestland, Finmeccanica directors summoned as accused
New Delhi: Former AgustaWestland and Finmeccanica directors Giuseppe Orsi and Bruno Spagnolini, ex-IAF chief SP Tyagi and others were on Tuesday summoned as accused by a Delhi court in a money laundering case related to the VVIP chopper scam.
Special judge Arvind Kumar directed the accused persons to appear before the court on September 12, while issuing fresh non-bailable warrants against Italian middlemen Carlo Gerosa and Guido Haschke and Dubai-based businessman Rajeev Saxena in the case.
Besides six, the court also summoned as accused 28 Indian and foreign individuals and companies, including lawyer Gautam Khaitan, AgustaWestland and its parent company Finmeccanica SPA.
The court passed the directions after taking cognisance of the charge sheet, saying there was enough evidence against the accused in the matter relating to the alleged money laundering to the tune of around Euro 28 million. The probe report, filed through special public prosecutors D P Singh and N K Matta under sections 3 and 4 of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), also claimed that the kickbacks were paid by AgustaWestland through two different channels.
"One channel was handled by middleman Christian Michel James and the other channel was handled by Gerosa and Haschke. Gerosa and Haschke in collusion with Rajiv Tyagi and Sanjeev Tyagi, cousins of S P Tyagi, conspired with Gautam Khaitan of M/s OP Khaitan & Co, Auditors and Solicitors based at New Delhi," the charge sheet said.
The ED, in its charge sheet, has alleged that money was laundered through multiple foreign companies which were used as fronts to park alleged kickbacks. The agency said that it may file more supplementary charge sheets in the matter.
On January 1, 2014, India had scrapped the contract with Finmeccanica's British subsidiary AgustaWestland for supplying 12 AW-101 VVIP choppers to the IAF over alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of kickbacks of Rs 423 crore paid by it to secure the deal.
