Armsgate: Probe reveals €51m paid in kickbacks

NEW DELHI: 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 to 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 off shore 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 Aero matrix’s directors resigned last year after the Finmeccanica controversy erupted. Gautam Khaitan and an other director Arihant Jain resigned from Aeromatrix on October 29 last year through identical letters “The name of the company is emerging in many contro versies 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.