This article lists the complete judgment of an Italian Court in the case of bribery in selling AgustaWestland helicopters to India
The Italian court’s judgment exposes the role of Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh in AgustaWestland Chopper Deal. The 225-page judgment also reveals that Sonia’s Political Secretary accepted the commission of €15 to 16 million ($17 – 18 million) from the middlemen. The judgment of the appeal court in Milan convicting AgustaWestland chopper company chief Giuseppe Orsi described how the firm paid bribes to top Congress leaders in India and lobbied with them to bag the Rs 3600-crore ($451 million) deal. Reproducing the handwritten notes seized from middlemen, the judgment says that the political leaders accepted the commission of 15 to 16 million Euros (around Rs.120 to 125 crores) in the controversial purchase of 12 VVIP chopper deal. It also names the role of Sonia Gandhi’s trusted aide and AICC General Secretary Oscar Fernandes and the then National Security Advisor MK Narayanan (Page 193).
Mrs. Gandhi and her closest advisers are the people who the British ambassador should target…
The 225-page judgment of the appeal court in Milan also annexed several documents, handwritten notes exchanged between the middlemen on how the total commission of Euro 30 million between India’s political leaders, bureaucracy, and Air Force officials.
Sonia Gandhi’s name (signora GANDHI) is mentioned four times, two times each on page 193 and 204 of the judgment, convicting Orsi and other officials of Finmeccanica, the firm which manufactures AgustaWestland VVIP Choppers. Orsi and other officials were convicted for four and a half years.
A letter dated March 15, 2008, seized by investigators shows the main middleman Christian Michel, who is still a fugitive, writing to Peter Hulet, then India region sales and liaison head of the helicopter company. The letter states that Sonia is the main driving force behind this deal and she will no longer fly in the existing MI- 8 choppers. The letter is quoted verbatim in the judgment. Details of lobbying and corruption of Congress leadership, writing to the then British High Commissioner in India that he should target top Congress leadership for clinching the deal are clearly explained.
“Dear Peter, since Mrs. Gandhi is the driving force behind VIP will no longer fly in the MI-8. Mrs. Gandhi and her closest advisers are the people who the British ambassador should target,” said the letter of Michel seized by the probe team. This letter was seized from the home of arrested middleman Guido Haschke in later early 2013.
The judgment also says Haschke had identified all the Congress leaders including Sonia Gandhi and Ahmed Patel on the court when their photos were shown to him during the trial by the Italian prosecution.
The Page 9 of the Judgment also affixed the handwritten note of Michel exchanged to Haschke on how to distribute the total commission of 30 Million Euro. Air Force officials were allotted six Million Euro and Bureaucracy including Defence Ministry officials to be allotted 8.4 Million Euro. The note gives split up to several top bureaucrats like DG Acquisition, Defence Secretary (DS), Joint Secretary(JS) etc. For more, see the interactive Pie chart below:
The note says Political leaders were to be allotted 15 to 16 Million Euro and the name shown to political level was noted as AP. Only one political leader to whom the money handed over is shown as AP, which refers to Ahmed Patel as confirmed on page 204 (see picture above). The note also shows on sharing the commission with ‘Family’ and the Judgment says it meant the family of the then Air Force Chief S P Tyagi.
Page Nos. 163 and 164 names Manmohan Singh and details that Orsi used Italian leadership and diplomats to contact the then Prime Minister to scuttle the probe by non-cooperation from Indian government side. In Page 163, the Judgment produces a hand-written note by Orsi from jail in July 2013 asking his people to contact then Italian Prime Minister Monti or Ambassador Terracciano to call Manmohan Singh.
“Call Monti or Amb. Terracciano in my name to ask him to call the PM Singh,” said the note seized from the prison cell of Orsi. The Judgment in several areas blames the non-cooperation from Indian authorities including Defence Ministry and other probe agencies in 2013.
Note:
1. The conversion rate is 1 Euro = 1.1264 US Dollars
2. 1 US Dollar = 66.525 Rupees
Annexure:
Below is the translation of Pages 162-165 of the judgment. The complete judgment (in Italian) is at the end of this post. The grammar may not be perfect in some sentences – it is reproduced here for completeness.
The documents also show a wide range of “surrounding” circumstances that outline a more widespread and grave dimension of the case (both from the point of view of the number of the people involved and in terms of financial data than it appears from the description given in Chapter A) which is unlikely to be clarified, due to the limits that the investigations have met in the present case, particularly because of the lack of responses from countries involved in the case, to the requests of assistance placed by the Italian Judicial Authority: this showing a substantial disregard to arrive at a full explanation of the facts, effectively demonstrated by the procedural behavior of the Indian Ministry of Defense (which brought a civil action in the criminal proceedings in the first instance of this judgment), already effectively stigmatized in the appealed judgment.
This attitude of the Indian authorities with regard to this trial clearly brings to mind an episode that occurred to ORSI during the preliminary investigation, and falls within the context of the previously mentioned initiatives of the defendants intended to disperse and tamper the evidence, and to create elements which are favorable and coherent with the pre-agreed line of defense.
In the period in which the above (ORSI) was jailed at the prison of Busto Arsizio, the custodial agents found in his cell, among his papers, a handwritten note (a copy of which was produced in the proceedings) which reads:
“Call Monti
or amb. TERRACCIANO
in my name to ask him
to call the P.M. Singh”
Given the date on which the document was found (03/07/13), the information contained in the text, the context in which the protagonists of this story act and move, and other indications which appear from the documents, it is possible to identify the people mentioned (in addition to the lawyer of the defendant):
- “Monti”: it is undoubtedly the former Prime Minister Mario MONTI, at that time still in office;
- “amb . TERRACCIANO”: can be identified as Pasquale TERRACCIANO, previously ambassador in Madrid, and, at the time, Diplomatic Advisor to the Prime Minister;
- “P.M. Singh”: the initials before the surname unequivocally lead to Manmohan SINGH, Prime Minister in India from 2004 to 2014.
We are obviously not in a position to determine what was the message that ORSI, during his detention, intended to send to the Head of the Government of India, but the same can be guessed if we think – on one hand – about the outcome of the requests for judicial assistance sent to Indian Authorities, of which we spoke about above, and – on the other hand – about the intense activities of evidence tempering which the protagonists of the story carried out for a considerable period of time, and with a considerable deployment of resources.
The memories written by the defense “skip” to talk about such activities. They dedicate them only a few lines of the extensive defensive memories of Spagnolini dated 03/24/16:
“This is the lawful alternative explanation that takes into consideration also Haschke’s wish … to get rid of some papers – which instead have been found at Agusta and that pertained to consulting activities provided by GORDIAN and which could be mixed with the contract of engineering works”.
In addition to the attempt of the defense to circumscribe Haschke’s behaviour to the hiding of “some papers”, the defense here repeats the same reductive interpretative line already seen for the dialogue between Haschke and GEROSA on the corruption and omits to quote any reference to the prolonged tampering activities of the evidence base directly attributable to the accused, and any reference to the agreements on the defensive line and on the representation of the incident to be provided to the Judicial Autority in order to give a semblance of legality to their relations: this, given the absence of any explanation from interested parties or contradicting versions, inevitably results in a further argument in favor of the prosecution.
In brief, from the analyzed conversations we can get unequivocal indications about:
- The corruption of an Indian public officer, identified as the cousin of the Tyagi brothers: in this regard, the explicit content of the dialogue is sufficient to establish the “reasonable belief that corruption took place” (recalling GEROSA’s own words);
- The involvement of different people in the task, including AGUSTAWESTLAND, ORSI, Bruno (SPAGNOLINI), Gautam (KHAITAN), Juli TYAGI;
- the instrumental connection between the corruption and the Indian contract
- the money used for this purpose, the amounts transferred to accounts in Mauritius Islands, the cash payments in favor of the Tyagi “family” and other Indian people, still in progress at that time;
- the means and tricks used for the creation of the illicit funding.
About this, ORSI and his defenders evoke a conspiracy hatched by the “old guard” of FINMECCANICA against him, as the leader of a line of radical renovation: hypothesis that cannot be accepted, due to the absence of reliable evidence.
Italian Court Judgment on Augusta Westland
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi: A Gujju businessman who does not invest his precious time for a losing battle - April 13, 2024
- NIA arrests two accused Shazib and Taahaa in Bengaluru’s Rameshwaram Cafe blast case from Kolkata - April 12, 2024
- National Herald scam: Adjudicating Authority upholds Rs.752 crore assets attached by ED - April 11, 2024
Why is no action being taken in India inspite of these judgements, worse Why is The media not highlighting this, they are part of this problem, and the judiciary the less said about them the better, RaGa and Antonio manio are out on bail in the national herald Case with the case hearing adjourned to the next century, What a shame
We are still waiting what action has been taken against,
Sonia Ahmed Patel and Manmohan Singh ?????
Let PMO answer this urgently.
India,, indeed, the World is watching WHAT ACTION HAS BEEN TAKEN AGAINST
a. Sonia Gandhi, b Manmohan Singh, c. Oscar Fernandes and others 🙌
Prime Minister Office should answer this. thanks.
After reading the whole judgement and comments by various people as a BJP man I must say.
1 Modiji read all this and take PROMPT ACTION , MOVE THE WHOLE GOVT. MACHINERY TO arrest
SONIA, MANMOHAN SINGH, A. AHMED AND MR NARAYAN and others if any involved in this GREAT SCAM and start prosecution work; otherwise as suggested by many, you will lose ALL YOUR CREDIBILTY as an Honest Prime Minister of India. It would be a misfortune of India if you for any reason don’t take ACTION NOW. It would be foolhardy just to exploit this situation for election purpose only. Your stature as an honest P.M. will go up in India and the World if they are jailed as a result of successful prosecution and you and BJP will benefit. thanks.
What would have been their fate if they were US citizens, where court judgements are fast.
2. What are these bigwigs going to do? Sue Italian courts or Sue themselves?
Lesson learnt- India needs intellectual specialists as chairman to head a ministry; under them bureaucrats & politician function, as per missions. Politicians like Lallu Yadav, Mulayam singh, Pranab Mukherjee etc etc- what do they know about Defence, Railways, agriculture, finance, health, HRD, education, rural distress, etc. even the IAS, learn lessons in 10-20 yrs service; prepare mission statements, politicians Sign only. All developed countries have specialist heading ministries. 360 degree reporting encouraged to bring out BEST Teams. This is possible when a strong govt is in office. Stop 5 pensions to politicians; they perform service (LIP) only; increase salary every few yrs! What a waste of time money on such irresponsible citizens. Last, does India need a Foreigner to lead our country? Congress do not have a skilled intellectual leader, better than the Italian Gandhi! Hope this msg reaches PMO & is passed.
Msg should reach PMO
Ironically this the degradation of politics after independence of India. Don’t forget scam during Indira Gandhiji and after her regime corruption has become cancerous evil. At state levels there are corrupt politicians in all parties including BJP. We deserve these parties and leaders. No use of pointing fingers to others. The National character is rotten. Individuals with decency, honesty, morality and character is the need of hour. One Modi isn’t answer. CJ of India is accused of sexual harassment! Answer is solution is within us. I will be happy to see the day truth comes out and all culprits are punished. Think about the enormous amount of wealth all have accumulated. If ill-gotten amount would run in trillions confiscate from all leaders from all parties and distribute to poor.
You are right. These were the kind of changes expected during the BJP regime. Long standing solutions. But they have only proved that they are no different. Disappointing 5 years.
These kind of stories are emerging during election so that people will beleive and not vote for congress. What about Rafael deal… all politicians are corrupt even the BJP is corrupt they are wearing masks and pretending to be pure and mixing religion in politics. Time and God will expose the truth because truth cannot be hidden for long.
What about Rafael deal ?
Why pulling the God in between?
It’s God’s ‘will’ that rules..
and it is again God’s will that Modi once again rules the great Indian nation..
what about Rafael deal…? Wat about it.. ? Rahul is spearheading a fake narrative just to tarnish Modi’s name…..where is corruption in Rafael…? they Congress took it to d courts n d courts tossed it out d window….for d minorities Modi s always a crook n Rahul is yr saviour….pathetic… dont u minorities of India have a conscience…..dont u people believen in honesty n truth….does only religion matter to u guys….sick
Such crooked deals are well planned. The paper trail is well protected. The money trail is like a vanishing ghost trail. Nobody can unravel the money trail which is done by hawala. So the crimes of Sonia Gandhi supported by Dr MMS and with active connivance of people like Chidambaram can never be proved. If anybody can trace the hawala transactions without the help of illegals then it would be a stupendous task. We can only surmise and derive the involvement and role of the main actors. We can never prove the crime. That is why Madam Sonia and his children can never be brought to book.
What action has the NDA government taken to make sure this does not happen? Either they are fit only to crib or they are party to this crime! Second option looks appropriate since they have carefully not implemented even Lokayuktha / Lokpal.
Eliminating middleman. Thats what has been done. If you are a middleman, youll cry.
I m hopefully say now we seen first time in Indian history the corrupt congress chief mom and son with their cashier ahemad patel and somebody are go behind bar in corruption case
5 years of BJP. Who has gone to jail? Instead they have siphoned out 30,000 crores themselves.
Do you believe RaGa’s lies?? SC has cleared the deal, AG has; where is the money trail?
Is there any scam in this country where the first family of scamgress is not involved?
The GANDHI family is an INCURABLE CANCER for India. We can cure this cancer if all the responsible unite and vote for BJP.
Dream?? what do we have now ? Neo Nazi sarkar ???
and italian helping them with court judgement ?
Educated idiots like you have been the bane of this nation, all you do this is for retaining your elite status.
Mother and Son is cancer. Must be removed.
We have already removed them! In 2014 itself. Why do we still talk about them? For every good, there is always a few who curse. Example: 2G. Was that good or bad? 650 million phone users in 10 years. No country has ever done it. Every one of us hold a phone today. Have you ever said thanks to the guy who did it? Why? All that we think of is 2G scam and not 2G achievements. Reason: some fictitious number game. Created in the minds of few cunning people who wanted to discredited some of the greatest jobs ever done in Indian history. Because it was done by a common man who came from a tribal background. And they successfully did it!
“Call Monti or Amb. Terracciano in my name to ask him to call the PM Singh,” said the note seized from the prison cell of Orsi.
Sure !. They will keep such sensitive notes with them in prison cell too. Nice story telling!.
I too agree with S.Sankar that AJ is a suspect and he covers all the ills of the UPA including that of P. Chidambaram’s. There is enough evidence in media that his son had laundered money and nothing has happend. I suspect that Modi is helpless and is afraid of tilting the apple cart !!!??. There are too many scams every day and for each scam one separate CBI, ED, SC Bench etc etc should be set up. Where do we go. Shamelessly these politicians too go with all these ang beg for votes all the time irrespective of these scams.
Actually noseparate CBI ED SC required. Cut the stem. No need to cut branches. Earth will shake. But the king said earlier, it does not matter.
Bribe has been taken, it is a tradition of indian politics, But it should be investigated in a fair manner and culprit should be punished severely.There should not be war of word between political parties and waste valuable time of parliament.
I hate the congress party and Sonia & Rahul in particular, But my question is would these mom son ever get convicted. We keep hearing about these scams which these people have don but when would they get convicted and punished. WHEN??????
you will never see this in your life time. Can’t you see how Italian court pronounced the judgement in three years and clearly convicted the people and Indian courts are no where near to judgement where as the proceedings were started in India first. Our judiciary is not to judge but to time pass. and when i is not able to do it further it judges and give judgement and not the justice.
Your paper also shows names of CVC and Auditor General names. Does that mean whom BJP gave Padam Shri recently is a corrupt man?
yes you are right. He is Shashi Kant Sharma. Maybe BJP didn’t know about this that’s why they gave him the award.
Haha!
What a biased interpretation of the court judgement? Court never said Sonia took bribe and being a “target of British High Commission”, “not liking to lfy in Russian MI8”, “being influential”, all these doesnt mean corruption.
I will believe Sonia Gandhi took bribe if PM Modi shows guts and himself says it from his mouth rather than using alleged CIA agent as per WikiLeaks
Why INC is So desperate before 2019? same reason. After that Tihar will need renovation to increase capacity
They’re not like Dalals standing outside RTO office and Magistrate courts taking money directly in their pockets directly, they have established protocols and routes for getting money…so you are trying to be naive or as usual punching holes in a case which indicts Congress culture.
Its really high time to think about highest punishment. It could be calling them traitors in public.
Agree on some of the view that irs difficult to prive in indiancourt of law but looking at the trail of papers it is emply clear that who has got what.
Start calking congress as party of traitors with the head of helm is traitor.
This corrupt, anti-national dynasty has ruled because of us, people of India. We are so immoral, foolish, coward, spineless and unethical that we voted them to power for 60 years. Some of us just voted for few rupees, some for false promises for personal benefit
Congress has always dubbed Hindus as dangerous and has garnered votes from Muslims saying that Hindus will kill them. Meanwhile the cooked up “Hindu terror” to keep Hindus off balance. With both in check they made merry in a thousand scams. No more. No more. no more.
this is public money on which every party man playing politics and enjoy the fruit of corruption, this is really serious charges and govt should take immediate action those who are culprit.
Wow what paid propaganda… If Sonia and MMS were involved why would they blacklist Augusta and why was CBI inqury intiated… mere initials is not good enough Sonia Gandhi being the driving force is established that new choppers were being procured as MI have history of mishaps plus SPG cant fly along that does not imply anything more than that. What has chaiwala and his favourite stooge sitting over for last 2 years???.
It is known fact that Tyagi was paid as money trails has been established.
You are a full blank and blind supporter of Gandhi’s & Cong-race because of your financial and social compulsions, other wise would have not said against a court ruling. I am amazed people eat, earn and enjoy in a Hindu dominated Nation always curse to Hindu appeasement, enough though their very existence depends on Hindu people. Even muslims and christians those live in India enjoy being exploiters and looters of Hindu population which is most gullible and don’t have true path due to so many fake rampals and asarams and political leaders as well.
All the kanoon and kitabs can’t help if one has decided to follow anything mindlessly, like quran followers.
BJP is quite because they know if they have taken first step then Die heart supporters(including media channels like Aajtak, NDTV etc) of Gandhis/Congis would have started saying look what Modi is doing,he is targeting innocent woman.
Chaiwala has to handle elite people like you before moving further, so there is a whole lot of them like weights tied to his legs slowing him down, anyway it’s clear there are lots of agenda drivers with psuedo names, NGO’s, parties, media driving a narrative that is wanting to handover power to the corrupt, nation breakers… it’s for every individual to decide calmly what and whom are they trying to defend and for what. If such people continue their motives are actually hidden from Public.
BJP government is all talk no action unit. A disappointing wasted five years. Even MMS’s second term was better than this. A PM who is a mauni on all important topics. No Lokpal! No transparency! All these investigations, Bofors, Augusta where are started during Congress regime. Please understand they had a 400 plus majority in parliament. Still when people raised objections on Bofors, Rajiv initiated an investigation. Compare this with Modi. He scuttled all investigations. Even after so much objections, he did not commission an inquiry. Lied in Supreme court! Changed CBI chief. So who has cleaner hands? Rajiv or Modi?
See the trails.
Most of them are Christians and few are non christians & also non Hindus. This clearly shows that Sonia trusted only Christians & never Hindus in the work of importance.
Yet, Hindu congis are so faithful to Sonia. Its a shame.
Why BJP is quite? Because they know, it is a well framed story.
Name of Sonia and Manmohan is, as identified, mentioned by the media. Result of court need not be truth to send someone behind bars.
BJP is quite because they know if they have taken first step then Die heart supporters(including media channels like Aajtak, NDTV etc) of Gandhis/Congis would have started saying look what Modi is doing,he is targeting innocent woman.
And she would shed crocodile tears to gain more support and sympathy.
Yes. Deepak you are as right as right can be. Congress President and her stooges will cry hoarse claiming vendetta.
How Indian Government will ask Other country court to name Indian politician …kindly throw some light on possible wrong doing in this Court notice from Current BJP gov. ..stop being blind….
For the Indian government to punish Sonia or MMS or Ahmad Patel it will be necessary to show that money transfer took place or proof that money was actually demanded by them for clearing the deal. Mere mention in the notes of some criminals is worth nothing legally although it may be good for getting some press coverage. Try to imagine if AB Vajpayee’s name was mentioned in the notes, does that mean ABV is guilty? The same goes for SG/MMS/AP etc. Mere mention is not proof of guilt.
So Novice You are !! In the land of Criminals , there is unwritten rule of Honesty amongst the Criminals to keep the records Straight !!
Sonia is well known corrupt !! She has the duo of Ahmed patel and Oscar Frnand… to carry out the loot and the Gate keeper Man Mohan was sleeping for being rewarded the position of PM GAte keeper– Sonia and Rau l… India and In dins like you are still find White Skin very attractive and trying to be sympathetic ..That’s the typical Indian Syndrome … to b Slave of White Skin and Remain eternal Slave …
You are right. India need a new Arjuna.
It is congress culture, which will trap anybody , including forgeiners too. any way things lays exposed, let see what congress has in defence.
One steo ahead towards Nehru-Gandhi Free India.
Please remove this mother son duo. They both are good for nothing.
They are good for BJP. BJP will constantly winning if they stay on the top of congress.
Its we Indian who tolerate all these things.
Shameless is the breed of these politicians. The likes of many politicians, specially from Bihar, the politicians from Western Maharashtra, one and all are the same class.
May the Almighty help our country and punish the guilty.
I really feel HELPLESS before our corrupt system.
agreed..
INTERESTING OBSERVATION: Some of the TV channels (esp NDTV) are dishing out the laboured explanation that, in the hand written note, “Fam” 15/16 E refers to Tyagi Family. “Fam” is listed under “POL” (Politicians), after AF (Air Force) and BUR (Bureaucrats). I’m not aware of any Indian political family by the name of Tyagis; can someone enlighten me? Is there such a political family that will be paid 50% of the total kickbacks?
tyagis may mean one who has given up pm post.
That was not given up voluntarly. When she was told about the implication of an Italian becoming Indian Prime Minister and an Indian citizen who took Italian citizenship cannot become Prime minister of Italy she got the point and appointed Paneerselvan as CM as Jayalalitha has done.
Govt.id India must take serious decisions on Gandhi’s to eradicate them from Politics
Better for Country
For the betterment of the Country family known as Gandhi must be removed from Politics
Congress must take action against their top leadership
Shameful Congress Party
Must remove this corrupt family for once & all
party & Country both will become safe
the most telling comment is that of mr. S. Shankar – ” congratulations for identifying the rotten apple in the basket “
the most telling comment is that of mr. S. Shankar – ” congratulations for identifying the rotten apple in the basket “
People of India deserve this. They are still electing Congress and Congress allies in various Indian states.
Such traitors of India should be booked and debarred from contesting elections for ever
Another manipulated paid story.
If it is truth why Modi Govt. is not taking any action.
Do India courts look at judgment of Italian Court?
File FIR in SC straight away!
Why BJP govt. mum on this issue?Are their leaders too got money from sonia gang to keep quiet?
BJP is keeping mum because our legal system is so archaic that getting conviction is very, very difficult, if not impossible. If they charge and/ or arrest Sonia, et al, they will become martyrs. So, it is best to keep the democle’s sword above their heads rather than flash the sword. Threat is more powerful than execution, as they say in chess.
Perfect reply. No need to make them Martyrs. Let them be at the helm of their party to become perfect catalyst to destroy their own party. And this is not the last, these scams will keep coming.
Snatch the OFFICIAL ALLOTMENTS of Bunglows to the traitor Manmohan & Sonia. Send them to Tihar immediately
Without delay BJP & Modi Govt. should file FIR and proceed legally to put these anti-nationals behind bars. Time has come to end this menace once for all.
Until AJ is removed from the ministry this cannot happen.Like bringing black money from abroad this will also remain to be a promise on paper only.