2 EX-CEOs SENT TO PRISON IN ITALY FOR VVIP CHOPPER DEAL

A Milan court has sentenced Italian defence and aerospace major Finmeccanica’s former chief Giuseppe Orsi to four-and-a-half years in jail for false accounting and corruption in the sale of 12 VVIP choppers to India.

The appeals court, which overturned a 2014 court order that had given Orsi reprieve, also handed a four-year jail sentence to the former CEO of Finmeccanica’s helicopter subsidiary, AgustaWestland, Bruno Spagnolini, on Thursday.

India cancelled the `3,600crore deal in 2014 after allegations surfaced that the UK-based AgustaWestland had paid `423 crore in bribes to swing it its way. The deal for the choppers — intended for the Indian Air Force to carry the President, Prime Minister and other VVIPs — was signed in 2010.

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