Deepak Talwar was close to several UPA leaders. He is alleged to have used funds from Airbus to construct a five-star hotel in Delhi.
NEW DELHI: The links of Deepak Talwar and Rajiv Saxena with top UPA politicians are being probed on a war footing by the Enforcement Directorate. The two middlemen were involved in various allegedly corrupt deals involving top UPA politicians. Both men were extradited from the UAE recently in a swift and seamless operation by the Narendra Modi government. Talwar, one of the two, however, is also being probed for his suspicious links with aircraft manufacturer Airbus and its subsidiaries, from one of which he allegedly received inexplicable funds in two tranches; the name of a senior UPA leader has also surfaced in this context.
In fact, the ED is also probing Talwar’s links to various UPA leaders, apart from his role as a middleman in negotiating unfair deals and bargains on behalf of foreign airlines with Air India and the Indian government.
Sources who have interrogated him in the past said Talwar is suave and sophisticated. He started his career as a customs clearing agent in Mumbai port. They describe him as a sharp person and glib talker, who over a over a couple of decades built a strong network with politicians and businessmen around the world.
At one point of time he also started a duty free business at the Delhi airport, where he established links with influential people. Subsequently, he started a company which helped foreign companies get Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) approvals for investment in India. He worked for an Indian windmill energy company, which required foreign investments. This windmill energy company has one of the biggest NPAs today. He also worked for a foreign cab company to ensure that they got clearance from FIPB to operate in India. He also acted as a middleman for a Spanish locomotive manufacturer, and pushed for its trials in India.
Sources said that it was during an Income Tax raid at the windmill company’s premises that his links and his reach were first revealed. The company had made certain payments to him which it could not explain to the I-T sleuths. Talwar has been on the radar of Income Tax and other agencies since then.
With the opening up of the Indian skies and aviation industry to foreign players, Talwar became a management representative for foreign airlines to the UPA government. A UPA minister was very close to him and a long-time friend, and is said to have helped him strike several deals. Due to this support, Talwar interacted with some foreign airlines based in West Asia, including Emirates, Air Arabia and Qatar Airways, and also with wealthy sheikhs to bargain on their behalf so that the airlines could get preferential treatment over Air India. In return, the sheikhs made him the main air ticketing agent for their airlines operating in the Indian sector.
In his role as a ticketing agent, he obliged several top politicians including a former Congress Chief Minister, who frequently travelled to the United States for his wife’s treatment. Talwar obliged him by upgrading their economy class tickets to business class. The differential money, it is said, was paid through Talwar’s company.
Talwar’s lawyer Tanvir Mir, however, denied any wrongdoing on his part. He said, that at the time when Talwar extended the courtesy the politician had lost elections and held no office of profit. It was merely a friendly gesture. Investigators, however, say Talwar was close to many UPA politicians and extended them several favours in return for work done with their help.
Later he started a company in the name of one of his relatives in the British Virgin Islands. This company apparently had no real business activity and was allegedly floated merely for transfer of funds, which were allegedly his commission or kickbacks. Then he shifted his relative to Singapore and started a new company from there. That company grew exponentially and a lot of inexplicable funds was infused into it.
AIRBUS DEAL THAT BROKE AI’S BACK
Interestingly, the ED and other agencies are probing a suspicious transaction of Rs 90 crore, which was allegedly made by MBDA, a subsidiary of Airbus, into Advantage, an NGO run by Talwar in India. It is alleged that Talwar was the main middleman for Airbus in getting a deal for the supply of several aircraft and it was in return of this favour that Airbus obliged him. This deal imposed a huge debt burden on the balance sheet of Air India, resulting in extremely high interest servicing. This made Air India operations financially unviable even until today. Boeing was the main player in this deal before Airbus got the contract to supply the aircraft allegedly with the help of Talwar. This was unplanned buying by the Indian government and was done all of a sudden.
The Sunday Guardian tried to reach out to Airbus for their reaction through email, but the company did not reply.
It is also alleged that Airbus and its subsidiary did not do due diligence before transferring the funds and did not care to check the proper utilisation of the transferred funds. It is also being probed why Airbus allegedly transferred $100 million into a Mauritian company linked to Talwar.
It is suspected that out of these funds, Rs 300 crore had been loaned to companies controlled by Talwar in India. These funds were reportedly used to set up a five-star hotel near the Delhi airport. Talwar’s lawyer said all allegations regarding Talwar and Airbus were baseless. He said the company as its corporate social responsibility had sent a team to India to ensure the funds were properly utilised. There was no corruption.
The agencies say they are probing the money transactions as there was no rationale for an aircraft company investing in a so called finance company owned by a rookie businessman closely related to Talwar.
Talwar’s prosperity increased with the passage of time. He not only purchased several properties but also bought a posh bungalow from the owners of a big tyre manufacturing company in Delhi’s tony West End locality.
Talwar’s name had earlier surfaced for his close links with a former CBI director, whose residence entry logs showed that Talwar was a frequent visitor there. However, Talwar’s lawyer contended to The Sunday Guardian, that just because his client was friendly with several important people, didn’t mean that he indulged in corrupt activities. An inquiry committee formed to probe the allegations against the former CBI director could not indict Talwar.
RAJIV SAXENA AND AGUSTA
Similarly, Rajiv Saxena, a 59-year-old chartered accountant suffering from cancer is being quizzed under custody by the Enforcement Directorate, which is probing money laundering and tracing the proceeds of crime.
Saxena is said to be the managing partner of M/s UHY Saxena, which is an auditing and consultancy firm headquartered in Dubai.
He is said to be a professional and personal associate of Gautam Khaitan, who has already been booked for money laundering in the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland helicopter deal, involving top UPA government politicians and bureaucrats.
It is alleged that Saxena became involved in this money laundering operation in association with Gautam Khaitan.
He assisted Gautam Khaitan in the incorporation of various shell companies and used his personal accounts, the accounts of his companies and his clients, including those referred to him by M/s. O.P. Khaitan & Co., to route the kickbacks from this deal through various channels to the intended beneficiaries.
His alleged complicity in this money laundering operation has come to light because of various evidences discovered in the course of the investigation and through letter rogatories (LRs) and disclosures by his associates.
According to the ED, Nidhi Mathur, an employee of M/s. OP Khaitan & Co., revealed to the agency that Gautam Khaitan and Rajiv Saxena were close personal friends and most of Gautam Khaitan’s business in Dubai was done through M/s UHY Saxena, which was also the only firm referred to by M/s O.P. Khaitan & Co. Deepak Goyal, another of Gautam Khaitan’s employees, further revealed that the professional relationship was mutually beneficial as both firms referred clients to each other.
Documents reportedly recovered from the hard drive backups at M/s O.P. Khaitan and Co. revealed that the network of shell companies and other entities involved in money laundering was shared between Gautam Khaitan and Rajiv Saxena as they exchanged instructions which pertained to companies that have been found to be involved in this operation.
Several other documents recovered from the hard drive backups at M/s O.P. Khaitan and Co. revealed that Rajiv Saxena was the beneficiary owner and majority shareholder (99.99%) of M/s Interstellar, and that M/s Interstellar raised bogus invoices on M/s IDS, Tunisia. Rajiv Saxena’s takeover of M/s Interstellar had been facilitated by Gautam Khaitan. Rajiv Saxena, through his company M/s Interstellar received proceeds of crimes worth Euro 12.4 million from M/s IDS Tunisia and further routed these proceeds of crime for payment of bribes to the ultimate beneficiaries, thus being arrayed as an accused by the ED.
Rajiv Saxena earlier allegedly lied that he had no association with M/s Interstellar. However, later he provided details of certain transactions which also included transactions with M/s Interstellar. The details provided to ED by Rajiv Saxena confirm the receipt of “Proceeds of Crime” USD100,000, Euro 30,000 and Euro 30,000 directly from M/s Interstellar on 09.11.2011, 18.03.2009 and 27.07.2012, respectively, through the accounts of M/s Matrix Holdings Limited and M/s UHY Saxena.
He allegedly tried to mislead the ED and told the agency that in 2004-05, Gautam Khaitan requested Rajiv Saxena to advance him sums of monies for his father’s treatment and promised that he would reimburse the same from his various overseas sources. ED’s custodial interrogation of Saxena could help throw up names of important politicians and bureaucrats involved in the helicopter scam, which shook the UPA government.
The ED may also bring Saxena and the already extradited middleman Christian Michel face to face as it suspects that both could be linked and could help unravel the mystery of who all shared the kickbacks received from AgustaWestland, the chopper manufacturer, to sway the deal in its favour. However, Saxena’s lawyer Shivani Luthra Lohiya said, “The ED is acting in complete violation of his fundamental rights. They are not allowing him to have effective legal assistance. Lawyers are not being allowed to meet him alone.”
She claimed, “Rajiv Saxena has been alleged to be the beneficial owner of Interstellar, even though (Carlo) Gerosa and (Guido) Haschke had stated before the Italian authorities that Gautam Khaitan is the owner of Interstellar. This is basis on some alleged documents received through an LR sent from Mauritius. These documents are alleged to bear Rajiv Saxena’s signature. The lawyers got those alleged signatures verified through truth labs in Delhi and they do not match Rajiv’s signatures. We asked the ED to verify those. Instead of verifying the signatures, they chose to abduct him.”
Saxena’s wife had already been arrested and bailed out in the case.
CBI, ED and Income Tax have done voluminous probe into the cases against the two men. However, linking these two seasoned middlemen to intricate money trails leading to politicians, bureaucrats and companies may be an uphill task.