Christian Michel, the middleman in the AgustaWestland VVIP Chopper scam, who was extradited from Dubai, has been spilling the beans and his correspondence from the time when this deal was in consideration has made some stunning revelations. Earlier, it was reported how Michel had access to Cabinet Meetings, Cabinet Committee on Security meetings and the then PMO under Manmohan Singh. It has now emerged that he also had access to investigative agencies, reported Economic Times.
The stunning revelation has been made based on his 2009 correspondence in which he wrote to his fellow middleman, Guido Ralph Haschke. In this correspondence dated December 6th 2009, had asked Hashcke to distance himself from a co-accused in the AgustaWestland Chopper scam, lawyer Gautam Khaitan.
Christian Michel had written to Hashcke because according to him, Khaitan, in cahoots with his ‘friend’ within the Enforcement Directorate (ED) tried to organise a raid against real estate firm Emaar EGF a month before the company launched its Initial Public Offer (IPO). He had also written that the MGF family had learnt of this move.
He had also reportedly written that the “family” employed by Hashcke had been told to “get lost” by Emaar MGF.
The dispatch reportedly reads, “The despatch reads, “I am deeply concerned about this developing situation with Emaar. I wanted to warn you to resign as a nonexecutive director in India two weeks ago but I have been waiting for a certain document to show you how bad the situation is. ..” Michel goes on to warn “the family behind MGF Emaar’s partner are an old, powerful and rich Delhi family. They engaged Khaitan, the lawyers who you recommended to take over AgustaWestland’s legal work. The MGF family thought Khaitan would help them launch their IPO and I know that Khaitan recommended that you become a non-executive”.
“Once Khaitan were the advisers, the Khaitan boss met with a friend of his at the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to recommend that he raid Emaar a month before the IPO unless MGF pay a huge sum to avoid this,” it adds. “The MGF family have all the information they knew about Khaitan and how they have been betrayed by their lawyers. That is why they told your family to get lost.”
Christian Michel is accused of money laundering, bribery, and fraud in connection with the Rs 3,600-crore worth AgustaWestland scam.
There have been some big revelations made in the ongoing investigation after Christian Michel was extradicted. Earlier, it was reported that son of a senior Congress leader had arranged kickbacks and that Michel may be charged under the Official Secrets Act. During the investigation, cryptic names like “Mrs Gandhi”, “Italian Lady’s Son R” and AP (which might be Ahmed Patel) were also revealed. It was also found that Christian Michel was in India several times and he was also lobbying against the Rafale deal in India and for the Eurofighter deal during the Congress regime.
