Sunday, February 17, 2013

Agusta Westland Chopper SCAM: Weapons dealer Bunny linked to Finmeccanica

Consortium’s Ex-CEO Said He Was Their Agent For LongNew Delhi: Finmeccanica consortium has been engaging middlemen in India for a long time as a practice, much before it used kickbacks to swing the VVIP helicopter deal, according to the documents filed in an Italian court on the scandal.

According to a translation of the documents submitted in the Italian court, Sudhir Choudhrie, the mysterious, but powerful, Indian arms dealer based in London, represented Finmeccanica in India for a very long time.

Giorgio Zappa, a former CEO of Finmeccanica, said during questioning at the prosecutor’s office in Naples on May 22, 2012 that Choudhrie was removed as the agent after he got caught up in investigations in India. Zappa was the CEO of Finmeccanica between October 2004 and June 2011.

The former CEO told his interrogators that he had never heard of Christian Michel, who was the key middleman in the VVIP helicopter deal signed in 2010. However, Zappa talked in detail about Guido Haschke, the second middleman in the deal, and why he was engaged for dealings with markets such as India.

In the startling part of the statement, Zappa said Finmeccanica, and Selex, one of its subsidiaries, had a “previous consultant”.

This was a “certain Chaudri”. The reference is to Sudhir Choudhrie, a Delhi resident who left India some time in 2006-07 after his name cropped up in a few CBI cases related to defence scandals figuring in the Tehelka tapes.

Choudhrie, Bunny to his friends, has extensive contacts in the defence industry. According to various sources, he works with Italian, Israeli, Russian and some European defence firms as an illegal agent. Over the years, he has amassed hundreds of millions of dollars and built up a business empire spread across the UK, India and other nations.

The admission of the former Finmeccanica CEO that they used Choudhrie as an agent raises very serious questions.

Will the past contracts of Finmeccanica companies in India be reviewed in light of this revelation? What steps will India now take to clamp down on the activities of people like Choudhrie?

It is illegal to use agents in Indian defence deals.
COURTESY:
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=TOINEW&BaseHref=TOIM/2013/02/16&PageLabel=17&EntityId=Ar01703&ViewMode=HTML

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