Sunday, February 17, 2013

Agusta Westland Chopper SCAM: Mohali firm under scanner in copter scam

Chandigarh: The mystery company that received the Rs 140-crore kickbacks for the AgustaWestland (AW) chopper deal could be a Mohali-based firm: IDS Infotech Limited.

And, this could well be the IDS (India) that Italian investigators probing the Rs 3,456-crore chopper deal have been referring to. When TOI met two of IDS Infotech’s promoters in Mohali on Friday, they said their company’s funding comes from IDS Tunisia, which received several million euros from AgustaWestland between 2007 and 2012, as revealed in the court filings of the Italian prosecutors.

The promoters said IDS Infotech got part funding from IDS Mauritius. According to the company’s 2011 and 2010 balancesheets, which are available with TOI, IDS Infotech has wholly-owned subsidiaries in the UK and the US, and has investments in The Netherlands and IDS Information Technology & Engineering SARL in Tunisia.

Two directors of the company, whom TOI met in Mohali on Friday, claimed salaries for the company’s employees were being remitted through banks in Mauritius and Tunisia.

Besides, it has been revealed that IDS Infotech Limited was formerly known as Inde-Dutch Systems (India), the full name for IDS (India). The name change took place in 2008.

The two Italian middlemen named by investigators—Carlos Gerosa and Guido Haschke—had met the promoters of IDS Infotech several times during 2007 and 2009 in Chandigarh and Italy to form a new software company, Aeromatrix, for a project to make software designs for Italy’s AgustaWestland and French aircraft manufacturer Dassault.

Sources in Aeromatrix, which has Carlos Gerosa and Guido Hashcke as its directors, told TOI that Italian prosecutors were probably referring to IDS Infotech while talking about IDS (India). “Our two directors would often facilitate our meetings with AW people,” said Praveen Bakshi, CEO, Aeromatrix.

“And that’s how our software exports had begun. However, we never asked why the two middlemen were interested in our project and would form a company for a project for AW, which was worth Rs 8 crore. We were doing our projects as long as salaries were coming.”

The remittances from IDS Tunisia to IDS Infotech were shown as payments for software developed in India.

The Mohali-based firm spent Rs 1.27 crore for foreign travel in 2011 and Rs 2.05 crore in 2012. The total software export was worth Rs 34.33 crore in 2011 and Rs 39.48 crore in 2010. Documents with TOI reveal that the directors of IDS Infotech include Manish Bagrodia, Ashish Bagrodia, Yogesh Parkash Aggarwal, Narinder Aggarwal and Pratap Krishan Aggarwal — all Chandigarh residents.

IDS INDIA
Directors of IDS Infotech Ltd, formerly known as Inde-Dutch Systems (India), held meetings with the two Italian middlemen during 2007 and 2009
The firm gets funding from IDS Tunisia and IDS Mauritius
Directors claim salaries for the company’s employees were being remitted through banks in Mauritius and Tunisia
IDS Infotech has wholly owned subsidiaries in the UK and the US
COURTESY:
Rohan Dua TNN
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM/2013/02/16&PageLabel=17&EntityId=Ar01702&ViewMode=HTML

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