J
Gopikrishnan / New Delhi
Feb 15, 2013
Like the Bofors
scam, the AgustaWestland chopper deal too has telltale signs of a Congress
connection. According to the Italian newspaper ‘Lettera 43’, main commission
agent Christian Michel’s late father was “close to the Congress party”, and the
other middleman, Guido Ralph Haschke, was a Director of Emaar-MGF, a real
estate company owned by relatives of Kanishka Singh, who is associated with a Congress
high-up.
Michel was also the agent of
Dassault, which has emerged as the lowest bidder for the Indian Air Force’s 10
billion dollar deal for Rafale fighter jets, supposed to be the world’s biggest
tender.
According to the Italian newspaper
report on November 20, 2012, the “mysterious” British citizen Michel, described
as “Man of Orsi”, had received 60 per cent (around `210 crore) of the kickback
amount of 51 million Euros (around `360 crore) from the Finmeccanica, the
manufactures of AgustaWestland choppers.
The investigation report filed in
the Italian court corroborated the findings. It said that the CEO of
Finmeccanica, Giuseppe Orsi, and AgustaWestland CEO Bruno Spagnolini had paid
30 million Euros (`217 crore) to Christian Michel. “Orsi and Spagnolin,
moreover, paid Christian Michel a total amount of about Euros 30 million,
partly destined to support the corrupt activity meant to bag the order and
partly to implement the contract,” the document said.
“Born in 1961, Michel is little
known to the public. On the internet, there are no evidences of his business or
his statement. Not a photo or an interview. Yet, Michel is very well introduced
in Defence establishments in New Delhi,” says the Italian newspaper report
titled “Christian Michel, the English middleman of Finmeccanica.”
“His contacts are stronger
especially with the Indian Defence, that he has inherited from his father,
Wolfgang Max Michel Richard, a British businessman who was very active in India
between 80s and 90s and was close to the Congress party,” the reports
says.
The detailed article on the
business background of the “mysterious” Michel stated that his father had
business interests in Libya, Russia, Iran and Iraq. He was a Labour party’s
fund-raiser before his death in August 2012.
Italian newspaper reports as well
as French Court records establish that Michel was an agent of Dassault, which
is set to bag the 10 billion dollar worth deal from Indian Air Force. According to these reports, in
2004, Michel sued Dassault over non-payment of commission for the purchase of
Mirage aircraft for Indian Air Force in 2000. However, Michel lost the case at
Paris Commercial Tribunal on the technical grounds that his agreement with
Dassault had expired.
Haschke case is all more bizarre.
The man who confessed to the Italian court on his connections with former Air
Chief SP Tyagi was the Director of Emaar MGF, the firm which bagged the biggest
deal in connection with Commonwealth Games. Haschke is neither builder nor a
real estate entrepreneur, so his connection with Emaar MGF is bound to
raise eyebrows.
The controversial real estate
giant is still being probed by the CBI for alleged irregularities in the
construction of the Games Village Complex in Delhi. Late Ved Prakash Gupta, the
founder of Emaar MGF, was the maternal grandfather of Kanishka Singh.
Kanishka’s father late SK Singh was also promoter of another related company
called MGF. The real estate company Emaar MGF was doled out controversial
favour by the Delhi Development Authority after it bagged the contract for
building the CWG Village.
According to the prospectus filed
by Emaar MGF with SEBI, Haschke was Director in September 2009. But in December
2009, he resigned after the Games scandal exploded and Opposition leaders and
former BJP chief Nitin Gadkari alleged that the Emmar MGF had been favoured due
to its link with Kanishka Singh.
1951 born, Haschke is a
Switzerland-based defence middleman, who holds dual passports of his motherland
Italy and that of the USA. Haschke earned 20 million euros (around Rs 150cr) in
the deal, according to chargsheet in the AgustaWestland case. It is learned
that Haschke stopped visiting India after 2011, when his name cropped up in the
Italian probe. Michel, a frequenter to Delhi for the past two decades, also
stopped coming to India after August 2012. He is currently operating from
Dubai.
[The report was published in ‘The Pioneer’ on Feb 15, 2013]
Feb 16, 2013 – The Pioneer
About
“the family” in the Copter Scam
A mysterious family has emerged
as the major recipient of the payoff in the Rs 3,700 cr AgustaWestland
helicopter deal. In the 64-page chargesheet filed in the Italian court, pages
40 and 41 refer to “the family” which got 28 million Euro (around Rs 200 cr) as
kickback from the Finmeccanica, the Italian manufacturer of the AgustaWestland
(AW) helicopters.
“We
have had extensive discussion on Sunday, the 8th of May, 2011, and it has come
to light that there were two agreements in place with AW which is where the
misunderstanding has arisen. One agreement was for EUR 42mn with the team and
other for EUR 28mn (not less than 5% of the total contract value) with the
family.
“The
team has agreed to reduce their EUR 42mn to EUR 30mn while recognising the need
for the agreement of EUR 29mn with the family to be honoured in full,” said the
document, which is the part of the chargesheet.
According
to the chargesheet, this document was seized from the bedroom of middleman
Haschke’s mother during a raid in Switzerland
The
chargesheet has details about the separate payments made to each member of
another family — the Tyagis - amounting to 4,00,000 Euros (around Rs 3.5
crore).
According
to the Italian investigators, the next tranche of evidences and the second
chargesheet is expected to be filed by March-end.
The
BJP on Friday stepped up pressure on the UPA regime asking it to reveal the
identity of “the family” that received Rs 200 crore kickbacks.
“Who
finalised and signed the VVIP chopper deal?, asked BJP spokesman Prakash
Javadekar. He also demanded the Government to answer. “Who received the
kickbacks?”
He
said the Italian chargesheet talks about payment of 28 million Euros to ‘The
Family’ at least at two points. “The nation wants to know who “The Family’ is?”
Javadekar told reporters.
In
its Friday edition, The Pioneer quoted French and Italian newspaper reports
claiming that the main commission agent Christian Michel’s late father was
“close to the Congress party”, and the other middleman Guido Ralph Haschke was
a director of Emaar MGF, a real estate company owned by relatives of Kanishka
Singh, who is associated with a Congress high-up.
Meanwhile,
BJP national secretary Kirit Somaiya on Friday wrote to the CBI seeking an
investigation into the role of Kanishka Singh in the helicopter deal. In his
petition to CBI, pointing out that one of the Italian middle man Guido Haschke
was a Director with the real estate company, Somalia
Emaar MGF washes hands of
Kanishka, Haschke
Real estate major Emaar MGF on Friday claimed it has “no links with
Kanishka Singh or any of his relatives”. The company also said that it was in
no way connected with the business of the Italian middleman Guido Haschke and
that he served only for a short period in its Board of Directors.
Reacting
to a story published in The Pioneer’s Friday edition titled ‘Italian media
hints at Congress links to copter scam’, the company said: “We have no links
with Kanishka Singh or any of his relatives as mentioned in your story. We
would like to state that Kanishka Singh or any of his relatives have no direct
or indirect business interest, including as a shareholder and/or promoter in
Emaar MGF. We are a corporate house with best of corporate governance and all
our shareholding is public and has been filed with various authorities as and
when required as per the statutory requirements.”
The
company admitted Haschke served as an independent non-executive director
for a brief period. “Emaar MGF has had no other association with him or any of
his businesses/associates other than this. Haschke was appointed on the Board
of the Company due to the statutory requirement of having a diversified board
with a certain number of independent directors on the board to be a publicly
listed company. Therefore he was appointed as an independent director to
fulfill the requirements of the company’s proposed IPO.” The company also
claimed he had not visited any of their office or even attended any board
meetings.
The
company said Haschke was a registered consultant to the World Bank for Asset
Trading and Debt Restructuring and was appointed by it considering his
experience with international financial.
The
Pioneer stands by its report. It is known that Kanishka Singh’s maternal
grandfather Ved Prakash Gupta was the founder of Emaar MGF. The company’s
current promoter Rajiv Gupta is Kanishka’s uncle. Other promoters, Shravan
Gupta and Siddharth Gupta, are his cousins. We have only reported the facts in
public domain.
