Choppergate: Several bank acs still untracked

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), which is probing receipt of alleged kickbacks in the ` 3, 600 crore VVIP AgustaWestland deal, suspects there are bank accounts linked to the money-trail that are still untracked.

The agency’s suspicion arose on its verification of monetary transactions related to private firms and individuals, whose roles are under scanner, said a CBI source. It was an alleged monetary transaction in 2009 between a Mauritius-based firm and the close relative of an Indian suspect that raised the alarm, he said.

“A laptop recovered from a suspect had the purported statement of a multinational bank’s Mauritius-based branch, which showed the payment of ¤ 50,000 to a close relative of an Indian suspect. A Mauritius-based firm, whose role is being examined, had purportedly made the payment via the bank,” said the source.

The alleged recipient however rejected the existence of such a transaction and it did not reflect in any of his known bank accounts either, which indicated possible existence of untracked accounts, said the source.

An Italian court had recently handed out a two-year jail term to former Finmeccanica CEO Giuseppe Orsi and its United Kingdom-based subsidiary AgustaWestland’s former boss Bruno Spagnolini for falsifying invoices, but cleared them of the more serious corruption charges in the VVIP chopper deal.

The agency is also examining the details of the receipt of a multi-crore Foreign Direct Investment by an Indian firm from a Mauritius-based firm under the scanner.