ED alleged that Michel has admitted that kickbacks were paid to swing the deal in favour of AgustaWestland.
New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has filed a supplementary charge sheet on Thursday in the AgustaWestland Scam and its first against alleged middleman Christian Michel James.
ED alleged that Michel has admitted that kickbacks were paid to swing the deal in favour of AgustaWestland.
According to the handwritten diaries which contained references of “AP” and “fam”, ED further alleged in its chargesheet that the accused had tried to pin the blame on another alleged middleman Guido Ralph Haschke.
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While talking about the sign “AP”, Michel said “I cannot say what Haschke was thinking. As a guess, I would think he was talking about Ahmed Patel”.
Accused turned approver Rajiv Saxena, who created corporate structures to route kickbacks, has also claimed that accused Gautam Khaitan and Sushen Mohan Gupta were close to Ahmed Patel, a senior Congress leader.
Furthermore, Michel claimed that the sign “fam” stood for “family” and when confronted about the identity of the “party leader”, the alleged middleman claimed that the “party leader” was the then chairperson of UPA, according to media sources.
In one of the despatches, Michel claimed that the “procurement paper” of the price negotiations was shared with the “party leader” when the chopper deal was being finalised has the investigators stunned.
Besides Michel, his partner David Syms and two companies, Global Services FZE (Dubai) and Global Trade and Commerce Services (London), have also been charge sheeted.
The chargesheet stated that Michel indulged in “liasoning activities with political leaders of the ruling party, bureaucrats and ministers in contravention of the integrity pact.”
"Kickbacks of 70 million euros was actually paid to parties who were in position to help directly or indirectly in awarding contract of VIP helicopters to AgustaWestland i.e €42 million were paid through Christian Michel James and €28 million were paid to the companies of Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa,” read the chargesheet.
The chargesheet added, “political elite was consistently helping Agusta-Westland by intervention through PMO and Defence Minister. Lobbying was done to put pressure on Finance Minister and his senior advisers. Michel has admitted that bureaucrats played an active role in sealing the deal in favour of AgustaWestland”.
Moreover, trouble also mounted for accused SP Tyagi (retd) Air Chief Marshal as Michel has claimed that he learnt that Haschke used corrupt means to obtain the deal by obtaining influence over Tyagi.
The chargesheet further added that the major part of the €70 million was routed to the complex structure and was withdrawn in cash and through hawala for payment of bribes to Air Force officials, bureaucrats and political leaders of the ruling party. Whereas, the other part of kickback was paid to Air Force officials, bureaucrats and important persons of the ruling political party directly or through middlemen who helped Michel.
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