After Agusta case, probe links Gautam Khaitan to 2008 Embraer deal

Delhi-based lawyer Gautam Khaitan’s advocate P K Dubey said on Monday that his client “has never been involved in any money laundering. These are all false charges”.

The Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate claim to have found that Delhi-based lawyer Gautam Khaitan, charged as one of the intermediaries in the 2010 AgustaWestland case, was also involved in laundering Rs 26 crore in the 2008 Embraer-Indian Air Force deal.

Lawyer Gautam Khaitan, an accused in the Agusta Westland case. The CBI and the ED claim to have found that Khaitan was also involved in laundering Rs 26 crore in the 2008 Embraer-Indian Air Force deal.(HT File Photo)

Officials in the agencies said on condition of anonymity that a charge sheet will soon be filed detailing the proceeds of crime and naming the persons involved.

Khaitan’s advocate P K Dubey said on Monday that his client “has never been involved in any money laundering. These are all false charges”.

HT has reviewed the internal findings by the agencies in the Embraer case, in which NRI arms dealer Vipin Khanna was named as the main accused. The CBI FIR in the case said Khanna received $5.6 million – now being treated as “kickbacks”– from the Sao Paulo based firm to influence the defence ministry and DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisaton) officials for the contract to supply three EMB-145 aircraft to government of India as a platform for the Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C) Project.

In the first week of September in 2016, Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo reported that Embraer was under investigation by the US justice department since 2010 over a contract with the Dominican Republic. In September 2016, a CBI investigation as ordered by the Indian government into the AEW&C deal.

Sharing details of the investigation, one of the officials cited in the first instance said: “Embraer entered into an agency agreement with Khanna’s company Cleveden Limited somewhere around February 8, 2005 for his services at a commission of 9%. This agreement was kept in a safe-box in London. Three years later, Embraer signed a contract with IAF (on July 3, 2008) for providing three highly specialized military aircraft for approx $ 208 million. The very next day, Vipin Khanna contacted Embraer and demanded his commission.”

“Somewhere around November 21, 2009, more than a year after the contract was awarded, Embraer, through its wholly owned subsidy, ECC Investment Switzerland AG executed an agency agreement with a shell company registered in Singapore, Inderdev Aviation Services to make payments to Khanna. On the same day, Interdev delivered three invoices to ECC, each for $ 1.92 million. Embraer, through ECC, remitted these three payments to Interdev in January and February 2010,” this officer added.

Gautam Khaitan, a second of the officials cited in the first instance said, secured the offices of Basmati rice exporting firm, KRBL Ltd for bringing around $ 32,74,635 (around Rs 15.32 crore) to India through its Dubai-based firm KRBL DMCC. KRBL’s official role was to only introduce Interdev Aviations to Niki Luftfahrt Austria, at the time a subsidiary of Air Berlin.

The joint MD of KRBL Anoop Gupta, in his statement to central probe agencies has disclosed that Gautam Khaitan approached him at his Pamposh Enclave office and informed him of a wonderful deal where the company KRBL DMCC could earn a commission of $ 3 million. “Khaitan told him that it was a deal wherein some passenger aircraft would be sold to a company in Austria. No investment was to be made from his company. It was also Gautam Khaitan who arranged all the agreements as well,” the second official said.

“The probe has further revealed that Khaitan brought (into India) another Rs 11 crore through companies controlled by him like Windsor Group Holdings Ltd, M/s Palmira Consultancy Services Ltd, M/s Carisma Investments Ltd (all directed) to the company of the Khanna family, Mulberry Trading FZE, Dubai and Abhay International,” the official added.

Hence, Khaitan was “central to laundering of proceeds of crime worth USD 5.6 million (Rs 26 crore)” he claimed.

Khaitan has already been charged as one of middlemen in the 2010 AgustaWestland deal. CBI has said in its charge sheet dated September 1, 2017, that bribes worth Euro 24 million (around Rs 160 crore) were given to Khaitan and companies linked to him.

The charge is that AgustaWestland paid bribes to secure a deal with IAF for the supply of helicopters meant for VIPs. After the allegations arose, the government scrapped the deal in 2014.

Khaitan, in January this year, claimed in a court that ED was forcing him to implicate someone influential in a defence deal struck during the UPA government. He did not give more details. He was arrested in January in AgustaWestland case. Multiple charge sheets have already been filed in this case.

“His name will now be included in the Embraer deal charge sheet as well as there is substantial evidence that he brought kickbacks into India,” said the second officer.

A spokesperson at Embraer’s Singapore corporate did not respond to an email and phone query seeking comment.

Calls made to the KRBL corporate office remained unanswered.