Anca Neacșu,
was a model in Romania before her marriage.
She later joined a mobile service
provider, somehow ventured into weapons
trade and defense supplies business; you
may not have followed that she was arrested and put in Tihar Jail, Delhi.
Elsewhere, the daughter of
the founder of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei has been arrested in Canada and
faces extradition to the United States. MengWanzhou, Huawei's chief financial
officer and deputy chair, was arrested in Vancouver on 1 December.Details of
the arrest have not been released but the US has been investigating Huawei over
possible violation of sanctions against Iran.China's embassy in Canada
protested at the arrest and demanded her release.Huawei said it had little
information about the charges and was "not aware of any wrongdoing by Ms
Meng". The arrest comes at a sensitive time for US-China relations. The
nations are engaged in a trade war that has seen both impose duties of billions
of dollars on one another's goods.The arrest will not help
the 90-day tariff truce the nations agreed after President Donald Trump and his
Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping met at the G20.
More important news for
the Nation is - Christian Michel James, a key accused in the Rs.3,600-crore
Agusta Westland VVIP chopper deal case, landed in New Delhi late Tuesday night
after being extradited to India in an operation under the supervision of
National Security Advisor AjitDoval, The Economic Times reports.The decks were
cleared for his extradition by the UAE government after his last legal appeal
against the move was turned down by a local court in Dubai.Michel has an open
non-bailable arrest warrant issued against him by the special judge, Patiala
House Court.In a press release, CBI said that the operation was coordinated by
its interim director M Nageswara Rao and a team led by A Sai Manohar, Joint
Director-CBI was in Dubai to oversee the extradition.
Michel’s involvement in
the chopper deal came to light in 2012. He was identified as the middleman who
swung the deal in favour of Agusta Westland by making illegal payment of
commission/kickbacks to the Indian authorities.CBI alleged that Michel, a
frequent visitor to India, operated as a middleman for defence procurement
through a wide network of sources cultivated in the IAF and Defence Ministry at
different levels, including retired and serving IAF officials.The investigating
agency also charged that Michel colluded with the then IAF chief, SP Tyagi, and
his family members who abused their official positions
by reduction of service ceiling of the VVIPs helicopter from 6,000 metres to
4,500 metres. The reduction in ceiling made Agusta Westland eligible for
contracts worth 556.262 million Euros, which were awarded to it by the Defence
Ministry on 8 February 2010 for the procurement of 12 VVIP helicopters.
Media reports further
state - Michel’s links in the Indian defence circles are inherited from his
father Wolfgang Max Michel Richard. Wolfgang Max Michel Richard is a British
businessman who was very active in India between the 80s and 90s and was known
to have enjoyed close proximity to the Congress party.Guido Ralph Haschke, the
second middleman in the deal, was the Director of a real estate firm (Emaar
MGF) owned by relatives of Kanishka Singh, who is associated with a Congress
high-up. A chargesheet relating to this case, filed in an Italian court, talks
about a “family” getting around Rs 150 crore as a kickback from the helicopter
manufacturer. Haschke stopped visiting India after 2011 when his name cropped
up in the Italian probe.
TOI carries report that - Christian
Michel, extradited “unconditionally” by UAE on Tuesday, “aggressively” denied
paying bribes to any UPA leader or defence ministry official as suggested in
his purported handwritten notes, but admitted to taking money from
AgustaWestland, which he said was a “consultancy” fee. Officials familiar with
his interrogation said Michel had not disclosed names of any “beneficiaries” of
bribe. Claiming he was “dyslexic”, Michel
told CBI officers he couldn’t write and the ‘bribery’ notes listing alleged
payments to politicians and bureaucrats were penned by Guido Haschke, another
European middleman.The notes, also part of the Italian court judgment, had
described Congress leader Sonia Gandhi as the “driving force behind the VIP
(choppers)”, adding “she will no longer fly with MI-8”.Michel further said in
the notes that besides Sonia, Peter Hulet (then-India region sales head of
AgustaWestland) should ‘target’ then-PM Manmohan Singh, then defence minister
Pranab Mukherjee and Sonia’s political secretary Ahmed Patel.A second note,
titled ‘budget expenditure items’ and dictated to Haschke in 2008, mentioned
acronyms of individuals who were to be allegedly paid bribes totalling 30
million euros. The mentions included ‘FAM’ and ‘AP’, both mentioned under a
head captioned ‘POL’ which Italian investigators interpreted as referring to
politicians. Michel accused Haschke of framing him on these notes.
According to the CBI
chargesheet, Michel had signed two agreements with AgustaWestland — one for €42
million (which he later reduced to €30 million) and the second for €28 million—
to lobby with the “family”. Family here was a reference to former IAF chief !!
.. .. “Michel claims these were
consultancy contracts and there was nothing wrong in it. But he is not able to
explain what he did with the rest of the money after deducting his 5%
commission,” the CBI officer said.
In another matter of
shame, a red-faced Congress, expelled
lawyer and Youth Congress member Aljo Joseph from the party after he appeared
for AgustaWestland middleman Christian Michel in a Delhi court on
Wednesday.Announcing the expulsion after Joseph’s appearance for the scam
accused triggered a controversy, Congress joint secretary in charge of the
youth outfit, Krishna Allavaru, said, “Joseph appeared in his personal capacity
and did not consult the Youth Congress before appearing in the case. IYC does
not endorse such actions.”IYC spokesman Amrish Pandey sought to downplay the
row, saying Joseph was an ordinary member and it was regrettable that BJP had
chosen to turn it into an issue. However, it was clear that Congress felt the
heat of the controversy, especially with the rival stoking it ahead of polling
in Rajasthan on Friday.
Saffron ideologue S
Gurumurthy tweeted, “Implicit confession by Sonia family of involvement in
AgustaWestland. Lawyer for middleman Christian Michel is Aljo Joseph, national
legal in-charge of Indian Youth Congress. Party officebearer to argue for the
middleman suspected to have received money for the ‘family’.”Appearing for
Michel, Joseph told special judge Arvind Kumar that he had been authorised to
appear on the United Kingdom citizen’s behalf and was given five minutes to
hold discussion with his client inside the courtroom.
For those who had not
followed up this scam (natural when one is drowned reading about so many scams
of the previous regimes) –AgustaWestland
was a helicopter design and manufacturing company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Leonardo S.p.A.
The collaboration between Agusta and Westland dates back to 1981. In early 2013, an Indian national
parliamentary investigation began into allegations of bribery and corruption
involving several senior officials and a helicopter manufacturer AgustaWestland
surrounding the purchase of a new fleet of helicopters. The scandal has been
referred to as the Chopper scam or Choppergate by elements of the media and
popular press. Several Indian politicians and military officials have been
accused of accepting bribes from AgustaWestland in order to win the ₹36
billion(US$500 million) Indian contract for the supply of 12 AgustaWestland
AW101 helicopters; intended to perform VVIP duties for the President of India
and other important state officials.Ahmed Patel, political secretary to
Congress President Sonia Gandhi, is alleged by Italian prosecutors to have
received kickbacks from the deal. After
a huge controversy and allegations of corruption, then Defence Minister A.K.
Antony, ordered an investigation by the
Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI). In
Feb 2013, CBI registered a Preliminary Enquiry (PE) against 11 persons
including the former Indian Air Force Chief, Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi, and
his cousins, besides four companies.
In 2013, billionaire
Indian arms dealer Abhishek Verma and his Romanian born wife AncaNeacsu(of whom
you read in 1st para) were named suspects in this scandal. Abhishek
had played the role of a middleman in the deal and had interfaced with the
politicians in securing CCS clearance from the Cabinet Committee.
Now with Christian Michel,
extradited “unconditionally” from UAE, some skeletons could stumble out or ..
.. .. this case too, could get closed like many before.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
6th Dec 2018.
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