Bribes ‘necessary’, says Berlusconi
Italy’s Ex-PM defends Finmeccanica’s jailed ex-CEO in VVIP chopper deal. Jaswant Singh says Italian government ‘gold medal winner’ in corruption
On the day the government ‘formally’ asked Italian firm Finmeccanica to specify whether bribes were given to any Indian entity or individuals in the Rs 3,600 crore helicopter deal, former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi came out in support of the firm’s jailed ex-CEO Giuseppe Orsi.
In February 2010, India had inked the deal to acquire 12 three-engine AW-101 helicopters from the Finmeccanica subsidiary, AgustaWestland, for Indian Air Force's elite Communication Squadron, which ferries the President, PM and other VVIPs.
The deal came under the scanner of Italian agencies after allegations of kickbacks given in India surfaced.
Berlusconi, billionaire businessman and three-time PM, said Thursday, “Bribes are a phenomenon that exists and it's useless to deny the existence of these necessary situations. These are not crimes. We're talking about paying a commission to someone in that country. Why? Because those are the rules in that country.”
It is alleged that Orsi, who was heading the helicopter unit when the deal was struck, was involved in the bribery amounting to around Rs 362 crore, handed out to ensure that the company won the contract.
Terming Orsi's arrest as “pure masochism”, Berlusconi said: “These are absurd moralisms. If you want to make moralisms like that, you can't be an entrepreneur on a global scale.”
JASWANT DEFENDS AIR CHIEF SP TYAGI
Senior BJP leader and former Defence Minister Jaswant Singh jumped to the defence of former Air Chief S P Tyagi, who has been accused of taking bribes in the deal through his cousins, even as BJP termed the deal as one having the “makings of a second Bofors scam”. Jaswant further said that parameters for purchase of these helicopters were changed when the Vajpayee-led NDA was in the power to “avoid a single-vendor situation”.
He said, “We should not make wild allegations against a former Air Chief. Don't start judging people simply because of association or because the former Air Chief Tyagi has cousins who are also known as Tyagis.”
The former Defence and External Affairs Minister cited his own example,saying,"One of my own cousins, a first cousin, he was known as a smuggler. Does that make me a smuggler? ”
Singh said the government had failed to nail the main culprit: Finmeccanica.“When it first appeared in 2011, the government has denied the very existence of such a situation. For about 10 months, all that the government did, between the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of External Affairs, was to send rather polite notes to the Italian government, who in any event are the Gold medal winners in corruption,” he said.
RS 217 CRORE SET ASIDE FOR BRIBES
Italy's state-controlled AgustaWestland had allegedly kept aside Rs 217 crore as part of “corrupt activity” to bag the chopper deal. According to the report filed by Italian investigators, middlemen had agreed to a 7.5 per cent commission in the Rs 3,600 crore deal for 12 VVIP copters. Eventually, the alleged kickbacks were to the tune of Rs 362 crore, and payment of bribes through contracts between firms registered in Tunisia and India was “still under way” when the scam was unearthed, the report said.
Investigators said Giuseppe Orsi and AgustaWestland CEO Bruno Spagnolini had paid 30 million Euros (Rs 217 crore) to one of the main middlemen, Christian Michel.
The arrested CEOs had also “paid Guido Ralph Hashcke and Carlo Gerosa (two other alleged middlemen), through a consultancy contract between AW Spa and Gordian Services Sarl an amount of 400,000 Euros (about Rs 2.8 crore), of which 100,000 Euros (Rs 72 lakh) were paid in cash to the Tyagi brothers,” the report said. The report also suggests that the middlemen had close contacts with former Air Chief S P Tyagi’s cousins.
One middlemen, identified as ‘ADR’ said that the first meeting of one of the middlemen with Tyagi took place when the tender was in the Request for Information (RFI) phase. “In the Zappa-ACM Tyagi meeting, one of the topics was the 18,000-ft altitude, which was practically excluding all the competitors except for the French ones, Eurocopter. When the tender was issued, I informed Orsi or Lunardi that the 18,000-ft limit had been lowered. The operational ceiling had been set at 15,000 ft. This had reopened the race for Agusta along with the Russians and the Americans,” ADR is alleged to have said.
COURTESY:
Mumbai Mirror Bureau @timesgroup.com
(INPUTS FROM LAKSHMI IYER)
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=MIRRORNEW&BaseHref=MMIR/2013/02/15&PageLabel=14&EntityId=Ar01400&ViewMode=HTML
Italy’s Ex-PM defends Finmeccanica’s jailed ex-CEO in VVIP chopper deal. Jaswant Singh says Italian government ‘gold medal winner’ in corruption
On the day the government ‘formally’ asked Italian firm Finmeccanica to specify whether bribes were given to any Indian entity or individuals in the Rs 3,600 crore helicopter deal, former Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi came out in support of the firm’s jailed ex-CEO Giuseppe Orsi.
In February 2010, India had inked the deal to acquire 12 three-engine AW-101 helicopters from the Finmeccanica subsidiary, AgustaWestland, for Indian Air Force's elite Communication Squadron, which ferries the President, PM and other VVIPs.
The deal came under the scanner of Italian agencies after allegations of kickbacks given in India surfaced.
Berlusconi, billionaire businessman and three-time PM, said Thursday, “Bribes are a phenomenon that exists and it's useless to deny the existence of these necessary situations. These are not crimes. We're talking about paying a commission to someone in that country. Why? Because those are the rules in that country.”
It is alleged that Orsi, who was heading the helicopter unit when the deal was struck, was involved in the bribery amounting to around Rs 362 crore, handed out to ensure that the company won the contract.
Terming Orsi's arrest as “pure masochism”, Berlusconi said: “These are absurd moralisms. If you want to make moralisms like that, you can't be an entrepreneur on a global scale.”
JASWANT DEFENDS AIR CHIEF SP TYAGI
Senior BJP leader and former Defence Minister Jaswant Singh jumped to the defence of former Air Chief S P Tyagi, who has been accused of taking bribes in the deal through his cousins, even as BJP termed the deal as one having the “makings of a second Bofors scam”. Jaswant further said that parameters for purchase of these helicopters were changed when the Vajpayee-led NDA was in the power to “avoid a single-vendor situation”.
He said, “We should not make wild allegations against a former Air Chief. Don't start judging people simply because of association or because the former Air Chief Tyagi has cousins who are also known as Tyagis.”
The former Defence and External Affairs Minister cited his own example,saying,"One of my own cousins, a first cousin, he was known as a smuggler. Does that make me a smuggler? ”
Singh said the government had failed to nail the main culprit: Finmeccanica.“When it first appeared in 2011, the government has denied the very existence of such a situation. For about 10 months, all that the government did, between the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of External Affairs, was to send rather polite notes to the Italian government, who in any event are the Gold medal winners in corruption,” he said.
RS 217 CRORE SET ASIDE FOR BRIBES
Italy's state-controlled AgustaWestland had allegedly kept aside Rs 217 crore as part of “corrupt activity” to bag the chopper deal. According to the report filed by Italian investigators, middlemen had agreed to a 7.5 per cent commission in the Rs 3,600 crore deal for 12 VVIP copters. Eventually, the alleged kickbacks were to the tune of Rs 362 crore, and payment of bribes through contracts between firms registered in Tunisia and India was “still under way” when the scam was unearthed, the report said.
Investigators said Giuseppe Orsi and AgustaWestland CEO Bruno Spagnolini had paid 30 million Euros (Rs 217 crore) to one of the main middlemen, Christian Michel.
The arrested CEOs had also “paid Guido Ralph Hashcke and Carlo Gerosa (two other alleged middlemen), through a consultancy contract between AW Spa and Gordian Services Sarl an amount of 400,000 Euros (about Rs 2.8 crore), of which 100,000 Euros (Rs 72 lakh) were paid in cash to the Tyagi brothers,” the report said. The report also suggests that the middlemen had close contacts with former Air Chief S P Tyagi’s cousins.
One middlemen, identified as ‘ADR’ said that the first meeting of one of the middlemen with Tyagi took place when the tender was in the Request for Information (RFI) phase. “In the Zappa-ACM Tyagi meeting, one of the topics was the 18,000-ft altitude, which was practically excluding all the competitors except for the French ones, Eurocopter. When the tender was issued, I informed Orsi or Lunardi that the 18,000-ft limit had been lowered. The operational ceiling had been set at 15,000 ft. This had reopened the race for Agusta along with the Russians and the Americans,” ADR is alleged to have said.
COURTESY:
Mumbai Mirror Bureau @timesgroup.com
(INPUTS FROM LAKSHMI IYER)
http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Scripting/ArticleWin.asp?From=Archive&Source=Page&Skin=MIRRORNEW&BaseHref=MMIR/2013/02/15&PageLabel=14&EntityId=Ar01400&ViewMode=HTML
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