Who is Christian Michel James and what's his role in AgustaWestland chopper case?

Christian James Michel, a British national and a middleman, has been extradited to India, a development that comes as a boost to Indian agencies investigating the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal case.

Christian James Michel, a British national and a middleman, has been extradited to India, a development that comes as a boost to Indian agencies investigating the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal case. Photo: File

NEW DELHI: Christian Michel James, a British national and a middleman, has been extradited to India, a development that comes as a boost to Indian agencies investigating the Rs 3,600 crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal case. "Wanted fugitive criminal Christian Michel James who has been avoiding criminal proceedings in India in AgustaWestland Case is being extradited by UAE Authorities to India," the CBI said confirming the extradition. Under the guidance of Ajit Doval, National Security Advisor (NSA), the entire operation is being coordinated by Incharge Director of CBI M. Nageswara Rao, the agency said. India officially made the request to the Gulf nation in 2017 for his extradition, based on the criminal investigations conducted in the case by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED). Who is Christian Michel: Christian Michel James is described as a historical consultant of M/s AgustaWestland/Westland Helicopters, UK with technical operational knowledge of the aircraft, the military bases and the pilots. Christian Michel James worked with Westland Helicopters Limited (WHL), UK since the 1980s. Even before Christian Michel, his father had also been a consultant of AgustaWestland, UK for the Indian Territory. Christian Michel was a frequent visitor to India and was operating as a middleman for defence procurements through a wide network of sources cultivated in the IAF and MoD at different levels including retired and serving IAF Officials. He was tracking the movements of the procurement process files and was sending periodical reports/despatches on the developments to the accused persons connected with AgustaWestland. In this process, he shared the information collected from IAF and MoD with his associate(s), who used to transmit the despatches through FAX to the other counterparts sitting abroad in Italy and Switzerland. In the aforesaid manner, he was updating/informing the management of M/s Finmeccanica and AgustaWestland namely Giuseppe Orsi and Bruno Spagnolini and others about his efforts in India for securing supply contract of VVIP Helicopters. Involvement of Christian Michel in the purchase of VVIP helicopter by Government of India had surfaced in the year 2012 as middlemen for swinging the deal in favour of AgustaWestland and making illegal payment of commission/kickbacks to the Indian Authorities. Initially, the investigation conducted by Italian Authorities indicted him for offences of international bribery/corruption. CBI took up the investigation and wanted him for investigation. However, he escaped from India and has been deliberately evading his presence from the investigating agency and also the due process of law in India. Hence, an open non-bailable arrest warrant dated 24.09.2015 was issued by the Special Judge, CBI Cases, Patiala House Courts, New Delhi. Extradition OF Christian Michel from UAE: Christian Michel James was arrested by UAE authorities in February 2017 on the strength of an INTERPOL Red Notice.CBI filed Charge sheet in the court on September 01, 2017 against Christian Michel and 11 other accused persons. The trial court took cognizance of the offences on October 11, 2017. CBI’s request for extradition was forwarded to the UAE authorities on 19.03.2017 through diplomatic channels. Extradition Proceedings were held before UAE Court against Christian Michel James on the extradition request of CBI. Vide order dated November 19 2018, the Court of Dubai upheld the lower court decision for possibility of extraditing Christian Michel James to Indian Authorities. Accordingly, Christian Michel James is extradited to face the legal proceedings. Role of Christian Michel in AgustaWestland case: 1: Christian Michel entered into criminal conspiracy with co-accused persons and in pursuance thereof, the public servants had abused their official positions by reduction of service ceiling of the VVIPs helicopter from 6000 metres to 4500 metres and a contract for an amount of Euro 556.262 million was awarded to AgustaWestland International Ltd (AWIL), UK by the Government of India through Ministry of Defence on 08.02.2010 for the procurement of 12 VVIP/non VVIP helicopters. 2: Keeping his proven expertise and experience in India, Christian Michel James was imposed as a controller on the other two middlemen namely Ralph Guido Haschke and Mr.Carlo Gerosa (already roped in by AgustaWestland) as they had no specific knowledge in the specific sector of helicopters. Renzo Lunardi, the then Commercial Manager, AgustaWestland proposed his appointment to which Giuseppe Orsi, CEO AgustaWestland (during 2005-2011) agreed. 3: A meeting was held in Cascina Costa, Italy during July, 2006 and Lunardi in the presence of Orsi proposed that Christian Michel James will join Ralph Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa in carrying out scouting and monitoring activities with regard to the acquisition of helicopters in India, keeping in view of his knowledge of Indian military operational mechanism. During the above meeting they had negotiated a comprehensive fees equal to 7% of the supply contract amount to cover the expenses and fees of both of them. 4: Mr. Christian Michel entered into as many as 12 contracts through two of his from firms namely M/s Global Trade & Commerce Ltd. London and M/s Global Services FZE, Dubai, UAE with Finmeccanica, AgustaWestland, Westland Helicopters UK etc. to legitimise the illicit commission on the Procurement of VVIP Helicopters by Ministry of Defence, India. An amount of Euro 42.27million (Rs. 295.00 Crore approx.) was paid by the Finmeccanica Group to the firms of Christian Michel James as kickbacks/bribe without undertaking any work against the receipt of such amount. 5: Christian Michel will be examined with respect to his involvement in the case and confronted with documents recovered during raids by Swiss Authorities and received by CBI through LRs indicating the bribes paid by Christian Michel James to the Indian Authorities for securing the contract for supply of VVIP Helicopters from AgustaWestland.