Diary, pen drive reveal Agusta kickback trail

NEW DELHI: Rajiv Saxena, who turned approver in the AgustaWestland bribery case, has submitted a diary to the Enforcement Directorate along with a pen drive having details of the Rs 423 crore alleged kickbacks paid in the VVIP chopper deal and how the money was moved from the UK subsidiary of Finmeccanica to shell companies in Tunisia, Mauritius, Dubai and Swiss banks besides beneficiaries in India.
Sources refused to divulge the names of people mentioned in Saxena’s personal diary, submitted to ED last week. They said Saxena “merely acted as a front”, but evidence contained in the diary and other documents in the pen drive may throw up “significant disclosures”. The fresh disclosures have also been recorded as supplementary statements during Saxena’s interrogation at the ED’s Delhi office.
The latest round of cross-examination took place soon after Saxena gave his testimony as an approver before a Delhi court on March 6. He had earlier claimed before ED that his “exposure in the case was minimal” and that he merely acted as a front for other beneficiaries. Some politicians and top bureaucrats during the UPA-2 regime are suspected beneficiaries in the bribery case.
Saxena was taken into ED custody soon after he was deported from Dubai on January 31. Later the agency did not oppose his bail application when he agreed to turn approver in the case. After filing for approver, Saxena recorded his statements before a court on March 6, which the ED accepted and informed the court that it supported Saxena’s application for turning a witness.
The ED’s money trail, according to its chargesheet filed earlier, revealed that AgustaWestland International Ltd, the UK subsidiary of Finmeccanica, paid 58 million euros (around Rs 423 crore) as kickbacks through Gordian Services Sarl, Tunisia and IDS Sarl, Tunisia. The money was further layered through multiple transactions in companies registered in different jurisdictions.
The kickbacks moved from one company to another as consultancy fees. From the Tunisian entities, the bribe proceeds were transferred to Interstellar Technologies Ltd and others in Mauritius and further to UHY Saxena and Matrix Holdings Ltd in Dubai.
The ED had claimed that Rajiv Saxena was beneficial owner of Mauritius-based Interstellar Technologies Ltd and the two companies in Dubai were where the proceeds of crime were transferred.
Another accused in the case, Christian Michel, the middleman who negotiated the deal with the Indian government for Finmeccanica, was extradited from Dubai on December 4 and arrested by the CBI. The ED later took his custody and questioned him on the flow of the proceeds of crime, and on Monday it attached a property in Paris worth around Rs 6 crore belonging to his ex-wife Valerie Michel, who, the agency claimed, had received proceeds of crime from the accused.
During its probe, ED said Michel had routed more than Rs 6 crore to India in Media Exim Pvt Ltd, a shell company, through his Dubai-based entity, Global Services FZE. The proceeds were used to buy properties in Gurugram and Delhi. The ED has attached these assets.