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TRMUNALE BUST OF ARSIZIO
OFFICE OF THE JUDGE FOR THE PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION
N.3856/12 RG NRT.
N.3785/12 RG. GIP
38 II3 ORDER
ORDER OF CUSTODY IN JAIL AND ARREST
• Art. 272 et seq. Cpp 284-285 -
Judge Dr. II. Luke Labianca
esaminais the request of the prosecutor in the proceedings n.3856/12 RG. NRT. of the measure of preventive detention against:
1) BEARS Joseph, born in Guardamiglio (MI) uk 24.11.1945, residing in Sesto Calende (VA), via
Vittorio Veneto 13 / B, electively domiciled at the Chambers. Ennio AMODIO, with offices in Milan, via
Private Cesare Battisti 1,
assisted and defended by the lawyer. Ennio AMODIO, of the Milan Bar, with an office in Milan, Via Cesare Battisti Private 1 and Th. Marinella de Nigris, of the Naples Bar, with offices in Naples, via Giosue Carducci 29, both designated trust;
2) Spagnolini Bruno, born in Treviso en 12/06/1950, residing in Fara Novarese (NO), Via Stazione 11, electively domiciled at the Chambers. Maximum LOW, with offices in Milan, via Private Cesare Battisti 1,
assisted and defended by the lawyer. Maximum Low, of the Milan Bar, with an office in Milan, Via Cesare Battisti 1 Private appointed by trust;
3) Guido Haschke Ralph, born in the United States en 09/29/1951 (Italian citizen and
American), residing in Lugano via Cantonale 10, electively domiciled at the Chambers. Luke James
LAURI, with offices in Milan, Via Fatebenefratelli 9,
assisted and defended by the lawyer. LAURI Luke James, of the Milan Bar, with an office in Milan, via
Fatebenefratelli 9 and Th. Luigi Paolo PANELLA, of the Rome Bar, with an office in Rome, Via Frattina 81, both designated trust;
4) GEROSA Carlo Valentino Ferdinand, born in Milan 1’11 .11.1946 (Italian and Swiss citizen), residing in Massagno (CH), via Giuseppe Lepori 21
IN DAGATI
Giuseppe Orsi, Spagnolini Bruno, Guido Haschke, GEROSA Carlo
Aj crime under Articles. 110, 112 n. 1, 319, 321, 322-bis, paragraph 2, no. 2), cp, because, in competition with each other and with others, in order to obtain a sec or other undue advantage in international business transactions,
in the respective quality Add:
Giuseppe Orsi, amministratone executive officer and president of Finmeccanica since 04.05.2011,
previously Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of AgustaWestland Holdings NV from 2005 to May
-
2011, consilyliere delegate management powers, from 23.12.2004 to 13.06.2011, also
AgustaWestland spa;
Spagnolini Bruno, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of May 2011 the group
AgustaWestland Holdings NV based in the Netherlands and Giet delegated administrator from 23.12.2004 to
13.06.2011, Agusta Westland spa;
Guido Haschke Ralph, manager and partner of GADIT SA of Lugano and GORDIAN SERVICES SARL based in Tunis;
GEROSA Carlo, a member of Haschke in the above-mentioned company;
MICHEL Christian, owner of Global Service Trade Commerce is headquartered in London and the Global Service FZE based in Dubai, consultant Agusta Westland SpA
promised and actually corresponded, through the brothers Juli TYAGI, and Docsa TYAGI
Sandeep TYAGI, sums of money, not exactly quantified in the overall entity, to Marshal TYAGI Sashi, Chief of Staff of the Indian Air Force from 2004 t
Congress ‘hand’ seen in VVIP copter scam
by Venky Vembu Feb 15, 2013
Allegations of illegal payoffs in the deal to purchase VVIP helicopters from AgustaWestland have thus far swirled around former Air Chief SP Tyagi. Tyagi has been vehemently protesting his innocence, dismissing the allegation made in court documents presented by Italian prosecutors (who are investigating the Italian end of the money trail) that the former Air Chief was the ultimate beneficiary of the “bribes” paid to his cousins, the Tyagi brothers, to secure the contract.
That strand of the narrative still remains to be explored, and media investigations are ferreting out yet more details that could potentially prove embarrassing for SP Tyagi. Other reports (like this one) point out that SP Tyagi has affiliations with other companies and agencies that offer “consultancy” in the aerospace and aviation sectors. For instance, Tyagi serves as Chairman of the Williams Global Advisors, which offers services from “conducting initial market assessments to providing business development to helping you negotiate contracts.” (The company’s website hurriedly removed Tyagi’s photograph and name in recent days, evidently after the allegations against Tyagi surfaced, but the company’s co-founder clarified that Tyagi remains with the firm.)
The middlemen in the AgustaWestland deal had tenuous links to the Congress. Courtesy: AgustaWestland
But thus far, no revelation that incriminates Indian politicians has emerged from the Italian investigations. In the Bofors case, the allegation right from the start was that payoffs were made to people close to then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. That allegation was validated much later when it was established that Italian wheeler-dealer Ottavio Quattrocchi, who was a close associate of Rajiv Gandhi and his wife Sonia, came it at a late stage of the Bofors negotiations, persuaded the company to wind down its commissions payment arrangements with other middlemen, delivered the contract in double-quick time, and and walked away with kickbacks.
This time, however, there has been no money trail leading to politicians. The “Italian connection” to the AgustaWestland deal has, however, proved too irresistible for Opposition politicians, who have tried to insinuate that the investigations in India have been slow to take off because, well, Sonia Gandhi has Italian roots. On Thursday night, appearing on a CNN-IBN talk show, Janata Party leader and anti-corruption crusader Subramanian Swamy threw down the gauntlet at the Congress – and made the sensational and direct charge that Sonia Gandhi and her sisters were involved in the deal. He was spiritedly challenged by the Congress representative on the panel discussion, but vowed to provide proof.
Knowing what we know of tainted defence deals of the past couple of decades, it seems safe to say that it needs an entire ecosystem of conspirators for corrupt deals to be finalised. It isn’t just enough for one person, however high ranking s/he may be, to be paid off. It needs tracks to be greased not just in the armed forces establishment, but in the defence ministry bureaucracy and the political end of the spectrum as well.
Which is why the exclusive focus on the allegations surrounding SP Tyagi, without prejudice to his claims to innocence, seemed like they narrated only a part of the story. Where is the political angle to the allegations of payoffs, one wondered.
Writing in The Pioneer (here), J Gopikrishnan (who broke the 2G scam, long before it became a national talking point) establishes a link that connects both the middlemen in theAgustaWestland deal to the family business of a Congress functionary who is considered close to Rahul Gandhi.
Citing an Italian news report from November 2012 (here, in Italian), The Pioneer reports that the father of Christian Michel, the main commission agent in the AgustaWestland deal, was “close to the Congress party”. The other middleman in the deal, Guido Ralph Haschke, was more organically linked: he served briefly as a Director on the board of Emaar-MGF, a real estate company promoted by the father of Kanishka Singh, who is a close aide of Rahul Gandhi.
Kanishka Singh is not directly involved in Emaar-MGF: the company was founded by Ved Prakash Gupta, who was Kanishka’s grandfather, and promoted by SK Singh, Kanishka’s father and an IFS officer who was considered close to Rajiv Gandhi and served as Rajasthan Governor.
Emmar-MGF, however, has been mired in controversy arising from its contract to build the Games Village Complex for the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi in 2010. It is to this today facing an investigation by the CBI on the charge that it received undue favours from the Delhi Development Authority to secure the contract for the Games Village project.
Precisely why Haschke, who has no experience in the real estate business, was appointed to the board of directors of Emmar-MGF is unclear. But, as this report in Business Standardestablishes, Haschke was appointed to the board on 25 September 2009 as an independent, non-executive director. But he resigned abruptly in a little over a month – in December 2009.
An Emaar-MGF spokesperson had explained to the newspaper the circumstances under which Haschke was taken on board – and why he left so soon. Haschke was taken on board to meet the statutory requirement for an independent director in order to file an IPO, and he had been recommended for his experience in the international financial sector, the spokesperson said. But since the IPO eventually fell through, he did not continue on the board. Soon after the latest allegations against Haschke came out, Emaar-MGF clarified that it had no connection with Haschke’s other businesses, despite his having served on its board briefly.
Very little is known about the other middleman, Christian Michel, even though he is evidently a familiar figure in Delhi’s arms dalal circuit. According to the Italian media report, his father, Wolfgang Max Michel Richard, was a British businessman who was active inIndia during the 1980s and 1990s and was close to the Congress party. Wolfgang Michel evidently had business interests in Libya, Russia, Iran and Iraq.
These are, of course, only tenuous links, not quite the “smoking gun” as in the Bofors case. Yet, they show up the “political ecosystem” in which defence deals get finalised. The fact that both the middlemen in the AgustaWestland deal are linked, in however tenuous a fashion, to the Congress party potentially puts the party on the defensive. Of course, the party has in the past been brazen in dismissing far more egregious instances of corruption leading up to the top leadership. But the latest revelations nevertheless give the story the “political dimension” it has thus far lacked.
http://www.firstpost.com/breaking%20views/congress-hand-seen-in-vvip-copter-scam-626206.html
AgustaWestland: Deal nearly died as bribe demanded was huge; Haschke 'used' to get Tyagi family goodwill
Manu Pubby Posted online: Fri Feb 15 2013, 14:05 hrs
New Delhi : THE CONSPIRACY AND FALLOUT
Pages 16-18
In his detailed confession, Haschke says the commission deal with Agusta was struck in the guise of fake engineering contracts. A total commission of Euro 20 million was decided in his favour, a part of which he would transfer to the Tyagi brothers in India.
QUOTE FROM ITALIAN REPORT: ''The agreement was made as an engineering contract equal to 5% of the order. The real cost was of 1.5% while the rest was actually the commission for me and GEROSA, to be shared with the Indians in the following way: 60% to the TYAGI family and 40% between me and Gerosa. The contract signed in Cascina Costa on 03.01.2007 between AW spa and IDS INFOTECH Limited – which we are calling contract but which was actually a letter of intent signed by SPAGNOLINI – was followed by the contract signed on 01.08.2007 between the same companies. This contract was replaced on 31.10.2008 with a contract between AW spa and IDS Tunisia through HEDI Kamoun, which is actually an empty box.''
Indian Express story here
However, the two middlemen had a major fallout in 2011 after the Italian chopper manufacturer said it will not be able to pay such a huge amount of bribe. Out of this dispute is born a crucial piece of evidence in the Italian investigation report -- an agreement that was allegedly drawn up by the two key middlemen in Dubai to settle the dispute that had threatened to end their contract with Finmeccanica.
The agreement, a copy of which was seized from a house in Switzerland and is cited in the report as a major piece of evidence, discussed how a total of 52 million euros would be divided between Guido Haschke and Christian Michel. The letter says that Michel agreed to take a 12 million-Euro cut in his commission to accommodate the demand of Haschke and "the family". It is, however, not specified in the letter what "the family" alludes to.
The dispute was settled after Michel agreed to take a hefty cut in his commission and assured Haschke that he would manage to convince the Italian company). (Refer to cover photo)
The report goes on to say that when the police (not specified if Italian or Swiss police) raided Haschke’s mother’s place in Switzerland in April 2012, they found important documents hidden under a bed on which Haschke lay as he pretended he was not feeling well.
QUOTE FROM ITALIAN REPORT: ''At the time when the engineering contract was being executed, in a meeting with SPANOLINI in spring 2011 I had an unpleasant surprise. SPAGNOLINI told me that the contract would have expired about 18 months prior to the agreed termination. I complained but SPAGNOLINI told me that it was Orsi’s decision and I would have had to talk to him. From my point of view the contract should have been fulfilled but the meeting with Orsi was not decisive. I later got a call from Michel for a meeting in Lugano of which I already told in the previous interrogation on 17.09.2012. After Lugano I met him in Dubai of which I already told. After this meeting, on 11.05.2011 I went to Spagnolini with Michel and Gerosa. On that occasion, Michel showed Spagnolini the latest document we made in Dubai. Spanolini got very angry as the solution was not feasible because it was out of budget. After leaving Cascina Costa, Michel, Gerosa and I went for lunch at “Sole di Ranco”. Michel was very calm unlike me and Gerosa and told us to be calm ''you will see you situation will be sorted out''. Indeed, the prosecution of the contract went on without further problems. Until 31.08.2011 – the term for a possible termination – Gerosa and I did not get good sleep.”
Indian Express story here
THE COVER UP
Page 26
Italian investigators conclude that Finmeccanica officials tried to put on an elaborate cover to hide the true relation of their dealings with Haschke and Michel. In several interrogations, senior executives said the agreements were legitimate.
''SPAGNOLINI, on the occasion of an internal audit on 09.05.2012 confirmed the relation with HASCHKE which started in 2005, although stating that he (Haschke) had nothing to do with the supply of the 12 helicopters to the Indian ministry of defence and affirming that the task which was given to him or to a company linked to him consisted in scouting activities in India regarding civilian helicopters and a following high-volume labour engineering activity assigned to IDS Infotech Ltd, a company introduced by Haschke himself.''
THE CONCLUSION
PAGE 28
This is the entire crux of the investigation by Italian prosecutors as it now stands:
In the document, the prosecutors reach the conclusions that, allegedly:
* AgustaWestland top managers knew from the very beginning about the limits fixed by Indian authorities regarding the use of external consultants by firms interested in participating in the tender. However, with the intention to overcome this obstacle, and being anyway forced to give an explanation for the amounts paid to the companies linked to HASCHKE and GEROSA, they put a different content with regard to the task given to the company (they decided that yes, these contracts happened but they were about scouting activities and about civilian helicopters). Hence, both ORSI and SPAGNOLINI knew about the necessity of using the services offered by HASCHKE Guido and his abilities in creating conditions to facilitate AgustaWestland spa in the tender. They, in other words as it is evident, estimated Haschke’s activity as essential. Haschke, as he said in the interrogation, had informed them about the possibility to obtain the paid goodwill of TYAGI Sashi.
* ORSI Giuseppe and SPAGNOLINI Bruno, in their positions respectively, on 09.05.2012 gave non truthful information to the internal audit body, hence demonstrating a clear contempt for the controlling structures and for those audits to which it was necessary to give explanation to substantiate an internal and external situation whose transparency was indeed very opaque if not totally in existence.
http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/1074757/