The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has zeroed in on some two-dozen local contacts of Christian Michel, a British national accused in the Rs. 3,700-crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal bribery case, during its investigation to unearth the money trail.
Among those quizzed is a Mumbai-based senior journalist formerly with an aviation magazine, who knew Mr. Michel since 1985. After leaving the job in 2002, he got in touch with Mr. Michel for work and was offered remuneration for filing aviation-related news daily. The journalist would send reports on developments regarding military and civilian aircraft to middlemen in defence contracts.
Mr. Michel later allegedly asked the journalist to join his Delhi-based shell company, Media Exim Private Ltd., as a director.
When he expressed reservations, as he could not shift to Delhi, Mr. Michel told him to attend just a few meetings every year.
The journalist, who received monthly salary and expenses, said he resigned in 2013 after he came to know through media reports about Mr. Michel’s alleged role in the VVIP chopper deal case.
The ED has summoned over half-a-dozen more local contacts of Mr. Michel, including a veteran journalist who once headed a Hindi news channel and earlier led the investigating team of an English daily. The agency has reasons to believe that Mr. Michel had paid for the air tickets of him and his wife.
The investigation has revealed that through a Delhi-based tour-and-travel firm and Media Exim, travel tickets for Rs. 13 crore were allegedly bought between 2007 and 2013 for Mr. Michel and his contacts.
In a statement to the agency, the common owner of the two companies has disclosed that he had set up Media Exim in 2005 at the behest of Mr. Michel.
The owner received about Rs.7 crore from Mr. Michel’s Dubai-based Global Services FZE between 2005 and 2007 in the form of advances for export of music CDs and jewellery.
However, the middleman later asked him to invest in properties.
Accordingly, the funds were used to buy four pieces of immovable property in Delhi and neighbouring Gurgaon, besides jewellery estimated at over Rs. 3 crore.
About three years ago, Mr. Michel instructed the shell company owner to dispose of the properties.
Media Exim, which never received any export orders, had a net earning of about Rs. 3 crore from the transactions.
