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Companies owned by Indian-origin British citizen and alleged Indian arms dealers Sudhir Choudhrie's family received close to 100 million euros from Russian arms and defence firms over 12 months, an investigation by BBC Panorama and The Guardian into leaked documents from the Choudhries' Swiss bank revealed.
Choudhrie, according to media reports, also figures in a Central Bureau of Investigation blacklist of people suspected of "corrupt or irregular practice". He has been probed by the Enforcement Directorate in various arms deals as well.
Choudhrie's name even appeared in the Tehelka tapes, following which his entire family moved to London.
Receiving payments from Russian arms companies
Citing the leaked report, The Guardian revealed that one of the companies under scrutiny was Belinea Services Limited, which received 37.2 million euros from Rosoboronexport State Corporation, which is the Russian agency in charge of the country's exports or imports of defence and dual-use equipment. Bhanu Choudhrie, the media report added, was a director of Belinea.
The other company, the Seychelles-registered Cottage Consultants, received 28.1 million euros from Rosoboronexport and transferred 22.7 million euros to an Isle of Man bank, the media report said. Cottage Consultants' documents show that Bhanu Choudhrie is the "first and sole director" of the company.
Quoting the Swiss bank report, the Economic Times revealed that Cottage Consultants received 28.1 million euros from Rosonboronexport, 4.7 million euros from PJSC RAC MIG and 9.7 million euros from ABC, since October 2007. The report linked the amounts received thus to the offsets business.
PJSC RAC MIG is a Russian industrial corporation which designs and builds aircraft, particularly military aircraft. The Guardian described "ABC" as an "entity", no further details were available.
Belinea, the ET report revealed, also received 18.85 million euros from ABC and $2 million from JSC MIC NPO. JSC MIC NPO is one of Russia's leading space- and missile-technology companies.
The BBC reported that Sudhir Choudhrie had declined to comment on the contents of the leaked bank report. Further, it added that Bhanu Choudhrie's lawyers have said that Bhanu had no knowledge of the Clariden Leu documents.
"The report to which you refer appears to be a confidential bank document. Mr Choudhrie has not broken any money-laundering rules in any of his business dealings at any stage," the BBC quoted the lawyers as saying.
The Rolls-Royce allegations and probe
A separate BBC report revealed that British automobile and defence major Rolls-Royce appears to have made a "suspicious payment of cash" to companies linked to Choudhrie and that the payment might have helped it win a contract for engines for the Hawk aircraft used by the Indian Air Force.
According to The Guardian, UK's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) had in February 2014 questioned Sudhir Choudhrie and his son Bhanu as part of its investigation into Rolls-Royce's activities, including in the Indian and Chinese market. Choudhrie and his son were arrested by the SFO but neither was charged.
Responding to The Guardian's questions regarding the alleged connection with Rolls-Royce, the Choudhries' lawyers have said that they had not been either middlemen or intermediaries for the British company and added that any such allegations of Rolls-Royce having paid them for the purpose of securing deals in India were untrue.
Where did the leaked report come from?
The Guardian reported that according to a Swiss banking source, money transfers between companies owned by or linked to the Choudhrie family sparked an anti-money laundering alert at Credit Suisse's private banking division Clariden Leu. The banking division's risk management team compiled a report on the matter in October 2008, which was accessed by the BBC and The Guardian and which highlighted the "flow of vast sums".
According to the same media report, the leaked report analysed 18 "account relationships" and enquired into money transfers between companies owned or managed by members of Bhanu Choudhrie’s extended family. Bhanu is Sudhir Choudhrie's son.
The Economic Times, which also accessed the report, said that the 18 accounts are, jointly or individually, in the names Bhanu Choudhrie and his cousin Aman Chopra.
