Charu Sudan Kasturi and Rajesh Ahuja, Hindustan Times
New Delhi, February 16, 2013
First Published: 00:03 IST(16/2/2013)
Last Updated: 09:05 IST(16/2/2013)
It’s a real company, with real directors and an address in Chandigarh – but a “non-existent” deal that IDS Infotech allegedly struck with chopper manufacturer AgustaWestland in March 2007 has returned to haunt the 24-year-old IT services company.
The fake contract was used by AgustaWestland to generate fraudulent invoices in the name of IDS Infotech, to route back Rs. 400 crore worth bribes for key middlemen Guido Ralph Hasckhe and Carlo Gerosa, and for the family of former air chief SP Tyagi, Italian investigators have told a court in a probe report.
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The contract was for IT services that IDS Infotech never delivered to AgustaWestland.
But the money trail didn’t end with IDS Infotech. Indian investigation sources have told HT that IDS Infotech hived off a subsidiary, Aeromatrix in 2009, which has Hasckhe and Gerosa as directors, along with Praveen Bakshi – also an executive vice president in IDS Infotech – and Arihant Jain.
Another company – IDS Mauritius – owns 82.66% shares in Aeromatrix, while the directors own the remaining 17.33 % shares, the company’s annual returns show.
Indian investigators now suspect that AgustaWestland transferred the bribe money to IDS India through invoices for the fake contracts, which in turn routed the money via IDS Mauritius to Aeromatrix – and so to Hasckhe and eventually the Tyagis.
Pratap Aggarwal, managing director of IDS Infotech – set up in 1989 -- could not be reached on his phone, and Satish Bagrodia, another director on the company’s board, refused to comment.
Bakshi, the CEO of Aeromatrix has denied any link to the chopper deal. But the man Hasckhe and Gerosa appear to have pinned hopes on is Delhi-based lawyer Gautam Khaitan, who was a director on the Aeromatrix board till October 2012, quitting with Jain once the probe against AgustaWestland picked up.
Speaking to each other on March 25, 2012 while returning from Milan airport, where they had gone to drop off Julie Tyagi, the former air chief’s cousin, Hasckhe and Gerosa discussed who could help them best – and concluded that Khaitan was a safer bet.
“Gautam (Khaitan) has a lot of good experience, an experience very strong. While Praveen (Bakshi) is unlikely to (help),” Gerosa told Hasckhe, according to a conversation transcribed by Italian prosecutors in their report.
(With inputs from Chandigarh)
http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/NewDelhi/AgustaWestland-signed-fake-deal-with-Indian-firm-to-route-bribes-worth-Rs-400-cr/Article1-1012388.aspx
Helicopter scam: Front company IDS India that routed Rs 140cr bribe does not exist
Josy Joseph, TNN Feb 15, 2013, 02.46AM IST
NEW DELHI: The company at the centre of the Agusta Westland VVIP helicopter scandal, IDS India, does not appear to exist in any official database. As reported by TOI on February 14, this is the 'company' which received up to Rs 140 crore in kickbacks in the 2010 VVIP helicopter deal with AgustaWestland via the tax haven of Tunisia over a period of about five years.
A search through the records of the ministry of corporate affairs threw up several companies with similar names, but nothing by the name of IDS India.
The IDS connection runs through the entire trail of kickbacks although little is known about the people behind it. Questions are being raised about the relations between IDS Mauritius and two Chandigarh-based companies, IDS Infotech and Aeromatrix, whose holding company is IDS Mauritius. Aeromatrix was promoted by three men, Guido Haschke, Carlo Gerosa and Gautam Khaitan, who are suspects in the Italian investigations into bribery in the Indian deal.
Investigations in Milan into corruption by Finmeccanica, the Italian consortium that also owns UK-based AgustaWestland, has shown that 51 million euro was paid in kickbacks in the Indian deal for the purchase of 12 VVIP helicopters.
The story of kickbacks in the deal looks straight and simple in the Italian court filings. It says between 2007 and 2012 several million euros was paid by AgustaWestland into IDS Tunisia. Money was remitted through Tunisia to IDS India against fake bills raised for development of software.
Aeromatrix, which is registered in Delhi but operates out of Chandigarh, has figured in the taped conversations of suspects in Italy. Until last year its directors were Delhi-based lawyer Gautam Khaitan, Swiss residents Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa. The last two are partners and are suspected to be key middlemen in the Indian deal, while Khaitan figures in Italian court documents as one of those who assisted them.
Aeromatrix's link to IDS Infotech, based in Chandigarh is curious. Aeromatrix was incorporated on June 26, 2009 after it supposedly took over some software work of AgustaWestland Italy that was being done by IDS Infotech. This work continues to remain the mainstay of Aeromatrix, with a modest annual turnover of around Rs 8.5 crore.
"The project from AgustaWestland Italy was transferred from IDS Infotech to Aeromatrix under a business transfer agreement, which is standard practice in the industry," Aeromatrix CEO Praveen Bakshi told TOI. But he claimed ignorance about the details of the agreement. This is despite the fact that Bakshi himself was a senior executive of IDS Infotech and moved to Aeromatrix as CEO along with all the employees working on the contract.
IDS Infotech handles offshore contracts across verticals such as automobiles and engineering. It may be a coincidence that Aeromatrix's holding company in Mauritius is IDS Mauritius. And it could also be a coincidence that it was through IDS Tunisia that the payments were remitted to IDS India.
While Bakshi said he wasn't aware who controls IDS Mauritius, two of Aeromatrix's directors resigned last year after the Finmeccanica controversy erupted. Gautam Khaitan and another director Arihant Jain resigned from Aeromatrix on October 29 last year through identical letters. "The name of the company is emerging in many controversies and news articles/clippings related with some alleged defence deals. The recent news articles in the press are very disturbing for me," both said in their resignation. Interestingly though, Khaitan continues to be the second largest shareholder with around 17% stake in the company.
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-02-15/india/37118926_1_ids-tunisia-ids-infotech-kickbacks
Sunday 17 February 2013
The curious case of Chandigarh firms in VVIP chopper deal
Chandigarh, Feb 16, 2013, (IANS) :
The names of two Chandigarh-based companies have emerged in the controversy around the $750 million VVIP chopper deal with Italian company Finmeccanica, which was supplying the AgustaWestland helicopters to India.
The names of Aero-Matrix Info Solutions Private Limited, based in DLF building in Chandigarh's Rajiv Gandhi Technology Park, and IDS Infotech, which is based in Mohali, near Chandigarh, have figured in the media in the VVIP chopper deal controversy.
The AgustaWestland chopper deal, for which the defence ministry has now initiated the process for its cancellation, is in the eye of the storm over the alleged payment of around 51 million euro as kickbacks paid by Finmeccanica to companies and high-profile people in India to clinch the deal.
The bribe payments, as investigated by the Italian investigating agency, were allegedly routed to India through two companies - IDS Tunisia and IDS Mauritius.
Investigating agencies are yet to establish the curious link between the IDS in Tunisia and Mauritius and IDS Infotech here.
The balance sheets of IDS Infotech do provide a link with IDS Tunisia.
Aero-Matrix was set up here in 2007 with Parveen Bakshi as its chief executive officer (CEO). Before this, Bakshi was working with IDS Infotech, which has Chandigarh-based entrepreneur Pratap Aggarwal as its managing director. Aggarwal is an active member of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
Bakshi told the media here: "We are only an engineering service provider (to AgustaWestland). We are not concerned with the (bribery) allegations."
However, one of the two foreign directors of Aero-Matrix, Guido Ralph Haschke, who is Switzerland-based, is being investigated by the Italian agency on bribery charges in the deal.
Aero-Matrix records also show links to Mauritius-based Infotech Design Systems Limited.
IDS Infotech has Satish Bagrodia, a former president of the PHD Chamber of Commerce (PHDCC) as chairman. His son, Manish Bagrodia, is also a director at IDS Infotech.
Bagrodia's office told media Friday that he had nothing to do with the controversy since IDS Infotech was managed by Pratap Aggarwal. Efforts to reach Pratap Aggarwal failed.
The defence ministry Friday said it had "initiated action for cancellation of contract for procurement of 12 AW101 helicopters for the use of VVIPs".
It also issued a formal show cause notice to AgustaWestland, a subsidiary of Finmeccanica, seeking cancellation of contract and "taking other actions as per the terms of the contract and the Integrity Pact". The company has been given seven days to reply.
The action comes a day after the government warned Finmeccanica of legal action, including blacklisting, and asked whether any slush money had been paid to fix the deal that has led to a political uproar.
The defence procurement scam came to light when the Italian government arrested Finmeccanica CEO Giuseppe Orsi Tuesday for allegedly paying bribes to clinch the chopper deal. The government launched a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into the bribery charges on Tuesday.
India has inducted only three of the 12 AgustaWestland-101 helicopters till now, with the remaining nine slated for delivery later this year. India is so far reported to have paid part of the total amount to AgustaWestland, the Britain-based subsidiary of Finmeccanica.
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/312538/curious-case-chandigarh-firms-vvip.html
Chandigarh link to cash vortex: CBI team to leave for Italy as probe into chopper mess begins
By GAUTAM DATT and SPS PANNU
PUBLISHED: 18:08 EST, 15 February 2013 | UPDATED: 19:45 EST, 15 February 2013
The CBI's investigation into the helicopter scam has kicked-off with confusion over where to start as the entire case is based on the Italian probe to which the Indian government has no access.
A defence ministry team briefed the CBI brass on Friday at its headquarters about the procurement process where specific details on the helicopter deal were presented.
In the meantime, a CBI team is being dispatched to Italy next week to try and get to the bottom of the €51 million (Rs 362 crore) alleged payoff.
Starting point
Sources said the Chandigarh-based Aeromatrix Ltd, the IT firm with business ties to Italian arms company Finmeccanica, would be the starting point as it is the only Indian entity directly linked with the key players in the scam - alleged middlemen Guido Haschke and his partner Carlo Gerosa.
The CBI is still indecisive if it can file a preliminary enquiry (PE) or a regular complaint (RC), FIR in common parlance.
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"We will file a case soon since it has been decided to send a team to Italy. We can only get access to all the documents related to the case if a formal case is registered," a CBI officer said.
The agency is also examining options of questioning the main accused in the case, Finmeccanica CEO Giuseppe Orsi, who has been arrested by Italian authorities for allegedly paying bribes to Indian officials to swing the AgustaWestland helicopter deal. Sources say unless he is grilled the probe cannot move forward as the CBI will have to investigate the money trail.
Extradition
"We will have to find out who are the officials who were bribed," the officer added.
The agency at a later stage will also look at the possibility of Orsi's extradition.
The two software companies mentioned in the report filed by Italian investigators in a Milan court - IDS Tunisia and IDS India - through which slush funds were routed, also appeared to be fake.
In fact, Haschke and Gerosa, the alleged middlemen named in the bribery case filed in the Italian court, appeared to have used the name of Mohali and Chandigarhbased IT company IDS Infotech to generate fake invoices to channel the bribes paid to the Tyagi brothers in the helicopter deal.
Aeromatrix, the company run by arms dealers Haschke and Gerosa, had been hived out of IDS Infotech, which was earlier doing some BPO work for AgustaWestland, a subsidiary of Italian defence giant Finmeccanica.
Aeromatrix now almost exclusively works for AgustaWestland as over 90 per cent of its revenue comes from the UK-based helicopter company. Interestingly, the holding company for Aeromatrix is registered in Mauritius and called Info Design Systems Ltd, or IDS in short.
An HR manager at IDS Infotech confirmed to MAIL TODAY that Aeromatrix CEO Praveen Bakshi and several other employees of the company were earlier on the payroll of IDS Infotech.
"However, now they work for Aeromatrix and do not have any link with the earlier company," he maintained.
Other IDS Infotech employees were tightlipped on the issue and refused to confirm or deny whether the company had operations in Tunisia. IDS Infotech has acquired an IT company in the UK and also has a subsidiary in the US and the Netherlands. In India, the firm has offices in Mohali, Chandigarh and Noida. According to the data put out by the company on the Indiamart website, it has a turnover of anything between Rs 40 crore to Rs 100 crore.
According to sources, the CBI will now have to examine whether the turnover of the company matches the bigger payments that have come in from AgustaWestland when the helicopter deal was being struck.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2279464/Chandigarh-link-cash-vortex-CBI-team-leave-Italy-probe-chopper-mess-begins.html?ito=feeds-newsxml