Ottavio Quattrocchi (1938 - 13 July 2013) is an Italian businessman who is being sought until early 2009 in India for criminal charges for acting as a channel for bribes in the Bofors scandal. The role of Quattrocchi in this scandal, and his proximity to Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi through his Italian wife Sonia Gandhi (Antonia Maino), is alleged to have contributed to the Congress Party's defeat in the 1989 general election. In 1999, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) named Quattrocchi payment list as a channel for bribes Bofors. The case against him was reinforced in June 2003, when Interpol revealed two bank accounts, 5A5151516M and 5A5151516L, held by Quattrocchi and his wife Maria with the bank BSI AG, London, containing Euro 3 million and $ 1 million, "a huge savings for an executive who are paid ". In January 2006, these frozen bank accounts were unexpectedly released by the Indian law ministry, apparently without CBI approval requesting that they be frozen.
On February 6, 2007, Quattrocchi was detained in Argentina on the basis of an Interpol warrant. The Indian CBI investigative agency was attacked for making a half-hearted attempt to extradite him and India lost in extradition case in June 2007, the judge said that "India does not even present a proper legal document". As a result, India was asked to pay Quattrocchi's legal fees.
The son of Quattrocchi's financier, Massimo Quattrocchi, grew up with the children of Sonia Gandhi, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi, who are now rising through the political hierarchy in India. Massimo reportedly advised Luxembourg-based company Clubinvest about business opportunities in India. He is also reportedly frequenting India, and runs an office in Bangalore. He was present in India by the time his father was arrested in Argentina in February 2007, and there was speculation that he might have met Priyanka Vadra around that time.
Video Ottavio Quattrocchi
The influence of Quattrocchi with Rajiv and Sonia Gandhi
Quattrocchi, born in Mascali, the province of Catania, Sicily, in 1938, arrived in India in the mid-1960s as a representative of the Italian oil and gas company, Eni and his engineering group Snamprogetti. His family became close to the Gandhi family based on their relationship with Rajiv Gandhi's wife, Sonia Gandhi, former president of the Indian National Congress party. Special Judge, Prem Kumar, observes in the order November 14, 2002:
Their children grew up together, and based on this friendship, Quattrocchi became so influential in the Prime Minister's office "the bureaucrats used to stand when Quattrocchi visited them." Ashok Malik noted in The Pioneer :
That his influence extends to the minister noted by VP Singh, who initially pursued the Bofors scandal, and whose testimony was summarized in court rulings:
He won about 60 projects for Snamprogetti, including:
- 1981: five Alibag plants (Thal Vaishet) from RCF, four Kribhco plants in Hazira, and ONGC gas pipeline at Hazira.
- 1983: National Fertilizers Limited (NFL's) in Naya Nangal, Punjab, and two factories in Guna.
- 1984: Three IFFCO plants in Aonla.
- 1987: Nagarjuna Fertilizers and Chemicals Limited two factories in Kakinada.
In the process, it is known that for a contract with India, Quattrocchi is an approachable person.
When the order did not work, as in Hazira-Bijapur-Jagdishpur (HBJ) (1985) pipeline, where Spie Capag of France had "offered several hundred crores lower." Quick revenge. Nawal Kishore Sharma lost his job as minister of oil and was reduced to secretary-general of Congress. PK Kaul finds his term as cabinet secretary ends prematurely and sent to Washington, DC, as ambassador. The oil minister, US Gill, never gets to the quarrel for the cabinet secretary. Chairman of the Indian Gas Authority, HS Cheema, has been removed.
Maps Ottavio Quattrocchi
Bofors scandal
In 1984, a tender was filed for Howitzer weapons for the Indian Army. On evaluation, the French Sofma rifle was found to be the best in terms of price and features. The Army requires a range of 30 km; The army chief, Krishnaswamy Sundarji, supported Sofma because in field trials showed a range of 29.2 km against 21.5 for Bofors. In addition, as revealed much later, Bofors (illegally) is allowed to change its offer without a re-tender. Finally, despite objections from soldiers and others, the order went to Bofors.
The Bofors scandal erupted after a 1987 report on Swedish radio, claiming that Bofors had paid bribes to secure the contract. A company called AE Services named - was found to have 100 lira capital, and no employees of Chitra Subramaniam and N. Ram of Hindu acquired Bofors MD personal diary Martin Ardbo, expressing comments such as "The involvement of Q may becomes a problem because of proximity to R. ". The "Q" identity became clearer when the investigation team identified the Swiss bank where the AE Service money went, and decided that it was operated by Ottavio Quattrocchi. And apparently R means Rajiv Gandhi. This was then reinforced by documents obtained by the CBI from Switzerland, but this was eventually sidelined in court because they were photocopies, and not original.
After the scandal broke out, the ruling Congress party suffered a great fire, which eventually lost the election in 1989. In July 1993, the Swiss court allowed naming of account operators, and Quattrocchi was officially named. At this point, the CBI tried to question Quattrocchi, and the attempted permission to confiscate his passport. However, just before Quattrocchi could be arrested, on the night of 29-30 July 1993, Quattrocchi left Delhi for Kuala Lumpur. It is alleged that he has been released as part of an agreement between Sonia Gandhi and PV prime minister Narasimha Rao.
In March 1999, Quattrocchi gave an interview claiming that never received any payments from Bofors, and that he did not have "any relationship with A.E. Services". Around the same time, Sonia Gandhi spoke for her in her first press conference
- The CBI has found it as a suspect. But we have not seen until today the newspaper that he has done something.
On 22 October 1999, with the Bharatiya Janata Party Party (BJP) with the ruling NDA government, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a chargeback to Quattrocchi, calling AE Service a front company run by Quattrocchi and his wife, Maria. Based on 500 documents released by Swiss banks after prolonged legal delays, the CBI framed the allegations against Quattrocchi and his wife, Maria; Win Chadha and his wife, Kanta. Among the conspirators mentioned in this case are Rajiv Gandhi, and several other party functionaries. Chitra Subramaniam points out that Quattrocchi, via A.E. Services, has been paid 3% of the sale, approximately US $ 7 million, as a commission.
The attempt to extradite Quattrocchi from Malaysia failed because of a lack of solid evidence and in 2003 the Quattrocchi returned to Italy. It has been reported that India's request for extradition or serving Interpol's warrant was rejected by Italy, which has requested to see evidence and prosecute Quattrocchi in Italian courts.
On February 5, 2004 the Delhi High Court canceled the indictment of bribery against Rajiv Gandhi and others, citing insufficient evidence that any commissions were actually paid to them. Sonia Gandhi celebrates:
However, the case did not die; two allegations - cheating, and causing wrongful losses to the Government, continues in court.
While Win Chadha also died.
On May 31, 2005, the Delhi High Court dismissed Bofors' allegations against British business brothers Shrichand, Gopichand and Prakash Hinduja, the main point being the technical problem that the CBI did not certify copies of important documents from the Swedish Authority that had been brought to justice.
Eliminate account freezing
In June 2003, a Swiss bank branch in London, BSI AG, was found by Interpol to have two accounts held by Quattrocchi and his wife, Maria, which contained Euro 3 million and $ 1 million. These accounts are then suspended at the request of the CBI. Some calls by Quattrocchi to cancel the freezing of these accounts were rejected by the British courts, based on robust marshalling of evidence by the CBI.
However, on December 22, 2005, the position of the Indian government changed suddenly. The law minister Hansraj Bhardwaj sent an extra Indian lawyer, B. Dutta, to London to specifically request the release of these accounts. However, it seems that the ministry of justice has never consulted with the investigative agency, the CBI on this issue.
According to e-mails from UK authorities (quoted in India Today ),
On January 16, 2006, Public Interest Litigation was filed in the Supreme Court, and the CBI was ordered to ensure that the money was not withdrawn until the government's decision was clarified. The CBI confirmed in court that Quattrocchi is still being sought in allegations linked to Bofors. It has been alleged by a petition written in the Supreme Court that B.B. The Dutta may have acted under orders from the law minister Hans Raj Bhardwaj and that the CBI is unlikely to be consulted.
By the time the Supreme Court ruling, a total of more than US $ 4 million, had been withdrawn from these two accounts.
This issue caused parliamentary criticism of government action, and also weakened Sonia Gandhi's position, coming as it did in a year of coalition led by him in power in the 2004 elections. The main case against Quattrocchi continues to flow through the Indian courts system.
Arrest in Argentina
On February 6, 2007, Quattrocchi was detained in Argentina on the basis of an Interpol warrant. The event occurred as follows:
- The end of January 2007: Ottavio Quattrocchi, despite having a warrant from Interpol on his behalf, took an Alitalia flight from Italy to Buenos Aires, where he spent several days, before continuing to visit Iguazu Falls. This area is a well-known tourist attraction, but it is also a warning area of ​​drugs and terror.
- February 6, 2007: In Iguazu, Quattrocchi went to nearby Brazil but was detained at Iguazu airport on his return on the basis of an Indian arrest warrant for "Document Fraud", which was later proven to be illegal by Argentine courts that tried Quattrocchi.
- February 8: Interpol notifies CBI of Quattrocchi detention
- February 13: The CBI who responded to India's Supreme Court on issues related to money withdraw by Quattrocchi, did not mention the fact of Quattrocchi's detention. The CBI later admitted that he had this information at the time. Agency director Vijai Shankar faces contempt for court charges on this issue.
- February 23: CBI releases statements about the capture of Quattrocchi in Argentina:
- Was notified by the Argentine authorities through diplomatic channels that the Italian national Ottavio Quattrocchi, the defendant in the CBI Case RC.1 (A)/90-ACU.IV/SIG (Bofors Case) and the subject of Notice Interpol Red Corner # A-44/2/1997, was detained and taken in preventive detention on February 6, 2007. Quattrocchi was detained at Iguazu International Airport in Argentine Misiones Province during transit to Buenos Aires.
- February 24: Bharatiya Janata Party opposition party (BJP) claims that the late release of information is administered by the Congress government to avoid embarrassment to Sonia Gandhi during the ongoing state elections in Punjab and Uttarakhand.
- February 26: Quattrocchi is released on bail. It seems that CBI/India is not represented on this issue. On the other hand, the Italian government supports Quattrocchi, with the Italian Consul General himself present in court.
- March 2: CBI sends team to fight extradition case to be submitted on 7 March. An English-speaking lawyer is appointed by the CBI.
- June 9: Ottavio Quattrocchi's extradition request was rejected by El Dorado court, Argentina with three charges: 1) The 1997 arrest warrant stipulated as a motivation, "document forgery" is considered illegal and based on unproved charges 2) the arrest order of 1997 in any case had been "used" by Quattrocchi's previous arrest in Malaysia; 3) The arrest warrant and court order issued after the Quattrocchi arrest, on 23 February 2007, was deemed to be arbitrary. The detailed ruling commented that "CBI requests are not supported by considerable judicial documents". In the final blow to the CBI, the investigating agency also paid Quattrocchi's legal fees.
- "Instructions to Mr. Q" by Ashok Malik on the Wayback Machine (archived September 27, 2007)
- The Italian article that translates this Wikipedia entry and enriches it with new and more information about O.Quattrocchi
Refund: Massimo Quattrocchi
At the time of Argentina's detention, Massimo Quattrocchi has been said to have been in India for seven months. He arrived in New Delhi on July 21, 2006, on the Lufthansa 760 flight, and abandoned the Lufthansa 761 flight on 22 February.
There was a sixteen day delay between when the CBI was informed of the capture of Quattrocchi in Argentina (7 February) and when the information was published (February 23, the day after Massimo's departure). This along with the failure by the CBI to explain their reasons for the delay have led to speculation about the role Massimo may have.
CBI director Vijai Shankar explained the delay said it would take time to translate documents from Spanish, but this explanation looked crummy, and it was wrong because it was sent by the Indian Embassy in English. This delay, similar to the delay in telling the public about account freezing, remains unanswered, causing considerable speculation.
On February 17, Massimo was allegedly seen at a party thrown in which Priyanka Vadra was also present. Every meeting between Priyanka and Massimo was strongly rejected by the secretary-general of Congress Digvijay Singh, but when the interviewer Karan Thapar asked him how he knew, he simply repeated the denial. But afterwards, it was reported that the agency was investigating his presence at the party, on Rahul Gandhi's example.
The presence of Massimo in this crucial period has led to accusations by opposition parties that Massimo, who grew up with Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi, may have influenced the highest levels of the Indian government that resulted in an unfeasible CBI law process that lost the case in Argentina. However, a congressional spokesman blamed the loss in Argentina for the inability of the previous NDA government: "we lost in three courts in Malaysia".
Damage to the Congress Party
The Quattocchi that has been designated as the main beneficiary in payment continues to hurt Sonia Gandhi. The position of the Minister of Justice Hansraj Bharadwaj has been compromised, and the integrity of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, also questioned.
Interpol removes red corner notifications
In April 2009, The Interpol removed the red-corner notices issued against Ottavio Quattrocchi after a request from the Central Bureau of Investigation.
In stark contrast to the investigation of nearly two decades by the CBI, the income tax court has ruled that Rs. 410 million are paid with bribes to Quattrocchi and Win Chadha, Bofors agents in India.
A great chapter in Bofors' 25 year story closes on March 4, 2011 with Tis Hazari court issuing Quattrocchi from a payment case after allowing the CBI to withdraw the charges against him.
The Chronicle of the Metropolitan Magistrate Vinod Yadav, in the 73-page order, notes that the CBI, although "spent 21 years, has not been able to put forward legal proof with respect to conspiracies on this issue." Furthermore, in the case of Quattrocchi, compared to the alleged dings of Rs The 640 million he received, the CBI in 2005 had spent about Rs 2.50 billion on investigations, which is a waste of public money. "
Death
Ottavio Quattrocchi died of a heart attack on July 13, 2013 in Milan, Italy.
References
External links
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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