The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has provisionally attached immovable properties worth ₹16.57 crore belonging to businessman Shravan Gupta, who is an accused in the ₹3,700-crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal bribery case.
The attached assets are in the form of land or farmhouse(s) located in a posh locality of Delhi. In 2022, the ED had attached properties worth ₹4.05 crore of Mr. Gupta and his wife. He is currently said to be in the United Kingdom.
On Monday, the agency alleged that Mr. Gupta, who is a former managing director of Emmar MGF, had received “proceeds of crime” in the companies named Natille Overseas Inc, Switzerland; Timekeeper Limited, British Virgin Islands (BVI); Hall Park Holdings Limited, UK, etc. The companies were beneficially owned by him, as alleged.
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“The proceeds of crime were received from a shell company based out of Mauritius, which had received the kickbacks in the defence deal from Agusta Spa, Italy. The ED had also filed a prosecution complaint dated February 10, 2022, against accused Mr. Gupta. Presently, extradition proceedings against Mr. Gupta are underway as he had fled the country in November 2019,” said the agency.
In July 2014, the ED had initiated the money-laundering probe into the AgustaWestland deal based on a First Information Report registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation on March 13, 2013, alleging corruption.
According to the ED, kickbacks amounting to €70 million were paid by AgustaWestland for influencing the deal for supply of 12 VVIP choppers in its favour and for subsequent payment of bribes to certain Air Force officials, bureaucrats, and politically influential persons in India, through a complex web of transactions.
Integrity pact
The integrity pact in the tender documents for the procurement of the VVIP helicopters forbade engaging of any middlemen and paying of kickbacks in any form for a favourable decision.
The agency has alleged that complex structures of money laundering were used to launder the kickbacks through a maze of companies across several countries, including Tunisia, Mauritius, U.K., Switzerland, BVI and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
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“AgustaWestland paid kickbacks to the tune of €28 million to the companies of foreign nationals Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa (alleged middlemen) in India and Tunisia on the pretext of engineering contracts. Further, the Tunisian company of accused Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa signed sham consultancy agreements to transfer the kickbacks to the tune of € 12.4 million to a company in Mauritius, which transferred and routed the kickbacks to the intended beneficiaries, including the companies beneficially owned by Mr. Gupta,” said the ED.
The agency has so far filed one main and 11 supplementary prosecution complaints in the case. It has issued 12 provisional attachment orders, including the latest one against Mr. Gupta, involving alleged “proceeds of crime” to the tune of ₹110 crore.
The properties attached in India are in the form of balances in bank accounts, mutual funds, stocks, jewellery, land parcels, and residential flats, while among those attached in foreign jurisdictions are a residential property belonging to middleman in France and a bank account beneficially owned by an accused in Union Bancaire Privee UBP SA, Zurich, Switzerland.
Wanted in the case, accused Christian Michel James was extradited to India from the UAE in December 2018 and another accused, Rajeev Saxena, was deported back from the same country in January 2019.
