Deal after deal one finds corruption links back to ONE country – Italy. Is it a mere coincidence?
When even the source country – Italy – is investigating the corruption and pointing to Indian middlemen.. Indian Government is quiet.
The India head of helicopter manufacturer Finmeccanica, which is being probed for alleged corruption in a deal to sell VVIP choppers to the Air Force, has come under the scanner of Italian authorities who tapped his phone conversations with the alleged middleman in the Rs 3,546 crore contract.
Italian prosecutors, who have been investigating a series of corruption charges against Finmeccanica, tapped the phone of alleged middleman Guido Haschke as part of the probe into the deal and have informed the court that they found strong clues that a part of the commission paid was routed through Mauritius and Tunisia. Investigators also claim to have taped conversations between Haschke and unnamed Indian individuals.
Details of the Italian probe into the deal are contained in a 100-page court order issued by the Tribunal of Naples Tuesday on the detention of former commercial director of Finmeccanica, Paolo Pozzessere. The Indian defence ministry has so far only sought ‘reports’ on the probe in Italy from the embassy in Rome.
We have had Bofors and many other scams. The cost of not prosecuting the involved people in all of those is that we continue to be sold again and again by the same people!
Such is the Audacity of corruption!
