Charge sheet against ex-directors of AgustaWestland, Finmeccanica in chopper scam

The Enforcement Directorate has filed a fresh charge sheet in a Delhi court accusing former AgustaWestland and Finmeccanica directors Giuseppe Orsi and Bruno Spagnolini and ex-IAF chief S P Tyagi of money laundering in a VVIP chopper bribery scam case.

The supplementary charge sheet accused 34 Indian and foreign individuals and companies, including Tyagi, Italian middlemen Carlo Gerosa and Guido Haschke, lawyer Gautam Khaitan and Finmeccanica, the parent company of AgustaWestland, of laundering money to the tune of around 28 million Euro.

The probe report also claimed that the kickbacks were paid by AgustaWestland through two different channels.

"One channel was handled by middleman Christian Michel James and the other channel was handled by Carlo Gerosa and Guido Haschke. Gerosa and Haschke in collusion with Tyagi Brothers, cousins of S P Tyagi, conspired with Gautam Khaitan of M/s OP Khaitan & Co, Auditors and Solicitors based at New Delhi," the charge sheet said.

Special judge Arvind Kumar put up the charge sheet, filed through special public prosecutor N K Matta under sections 3 and 4 of Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), for consideration and further action on July 20.

The ED, in its charge sheet, has alleged that money was laundered through multiple foreign companies which were used as fronts to park alleged kickbacks.

The agency said that it may file more supplementary charge sheets in the matter.

On January 1, 2014, India had scrapped the contract with Finmeccanica's British subsidiary AgustaWestland for supplying 12 AW-101 VVIP choppers to the IAF over alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of kickbacks of Rs 423 crore paid by it to secure the deal.

The accused named in the charge sheet include Guido Haschke, Carlo Gerosa, S P Tyagi, his cousins Rajiv Tyagi and Sanjeev Tyagi, advocate Gautam Khaitan and his wife Ritu Khaitan, Shivani Saxena and her husband Rajeev Saxena, both directors of two Dubai-based firms,