A complex web of companies and consulting firms spread across three countries has emerged as the route through which alleged kickbacks worth over 20 million euros for the VVIP chopper contract were distributed by the middlemen,with a Mauritius company emerging as the node through which most payments were made. The probe into payments made by chopper firm AgustaWestland to Swiss-based middlemen Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa has led to a company registered in Port Louis,named Interstellar Technologies Limited,that Italian investigators say was used to route most of the payments to India,Switzerland,Singapore and Liechtenstein for allegedly bribing public officials and politicians among others. While the CBI has named only two companies in its preliminary inquiry IDS and Aeromatrix that received dubious engineering contracts from the chopper company it may need to move fast on tracking Interstellar as the company is marked as being in the process of winding up,according to the companies registry of Mauritius. A new investigation report from Italy reveals that a money chain has been established that brings out the route through which the middlemen managed to divert cash from the engineering contracts that they bagged from AgustaWestland. While the company has consistently denied that it hired middlemen for the deal,here is how investigators believe the money was laundered to India and other nations: * AW made payments worth a total of 19.227 million euros,as of April 16,2012,to IDS Tunisia through the Arab Banking Corporation. The payments were meant for engineering services for AW129 and AW149 helicopters that were to be performed by Chandigarh-based Aeromatrix. However,there are no records of actual work done corresponding to the payments made. In fact,investigators have recorded Haschke and Gerosa as worrying that if Indian investigators go into Aeromatrixs records of the past three years,they will find that the number of employees and the work done is minuscule compared to the payments made. As reported by The Indian Express in February,the duo discussed how the company can hire more engineers and make them do nothing to cloak the payments. * While a small part of the 19.227 million euros received by IDS Tunisia was given to Aeromatrix estimated to be under 5 million euros to keep the company running as a legitimate front,most of the payments from Tunisia were remitted to Mauritius-based Interstellar Technologies Ltd. The payments were made on the basis of invoices for fictitious consultancies. Investigators say that the partners who own Interstellar are the three Tyagi brothers,Haschke and Gerosa and partially lawyer Gautam Khaitan. * From Interstellar,the money was sent by an administrator named Hedi Kammoun,to another Mauritius-based company,Infotech Design Systems Ltd,which is listed as a major shareholder in Aeromatrix. This company is currently marked as active and was incorporated on July 1,2009. It shares the same address in Port Louis as Interstellar. * From Infotech,the money was divided into several batches and remitted to another web of companies including Incrust Infotechno Solutions,Aerometrix Info Solutions (possibly different from Aeromatrix) and Gadit Sa. Investigators say that money was then transferred through multi-layered transactions to companies in India,Switzerland,Singapore and Liechtenstein. Italian investigators believe it is evident that Interstellar is the means for the laundering and that Gautam Khaitan,and/ or somebody else on his behalf,uses it to transfer the money,also through further bank and financial transfers to other shell companies,before it reaches the actual beneficiaries. Italian investigators in their report have identified people to whom money was paid at the final end. The report says that payments were mostly paid in cash and among the recipients were the Tyagi brothers,Paolo Girasole (India head of Finmeccanica),Fava Luciano (Alenia Aeronautica India head) and others. Payments to Indian public officials and other people,it is believed,were made in cash,so that no trace is left and links cannot be made, the report notes. However,the investigations have not gone into the Indian side of the payments in detail,partly as they do not have the jurisdiction to investigate in India and did not get access to any of the key Indian players. The CBI too may have only a small window to extract information,given that Interstellar the alleged key to the entire nexus is in the process of being shut down.
