ED finds email trail of payoff to middleman

NEW DELHI: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has acquired key evidence that corroborates allegations of chopper manufacturer Agusta-Westland (AW)’s UK firm camouflaging commissions paid to a British middleman to clinch the controversial 2010 contract with India during the UPA government.

The ED found a March 5, 2008 letter e-mailed from Christian Michel, the alleged middleman, to John Grandy, the then CEO of AW Ltd, the company’s British manufacturer, allegedly instructing how to conceal the commission paid.

Michel allegedly told Grandy that he had a group of companies providing promotional services for the UK firm that “could be paid monthly in connection with the signature of AW’s first new major contract in India”.

Michel is among three nonIndian middlemen accused by both the ED and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) of having taken commissions worth Euro 70 million (around `360 crore) from AW Ltd to bribe “various persons who helped ink the deal.”

According to the ED’s investigations, Euro 30 million of the total commissions paid went to the Dubai-based Michel and his group of firms for “service contracts” while the rest was paid to two other middlemen, Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa.

An ED probe document accessed by Hindustan Times read: “During the course of investigations under Prevention of Money Laundering Act, certain documents of Italian court proceedings were obtained from Ministry of Defence, which revealed a letter dated March 5, 2008 from Christian Michel to John Grandy – AW (Agusta-Westaland) Ltd’s CEO.”

In the letter, Michel mentioned firms such as ‘Media Exim’ and ‘Moorbank East India’. The ED document said that the “kickbacks received by Christian Michel James in his company M/s Global Services, FZE, Dubai in the guise of two agreements from M/s Agusta Westland, were …kickbacks.”

HT could not contact AW’s spokesperson but in an earlier statement, he denied any wrongdoing on the company’s part.