The president of Finmeccanica, Giuseppe Orsi, was arrested by the Carabinieri, while house arrest has arrived for the managing director of AgustaWestland, Bruno Spagnolini. The news was released by the website of the newspaper La Stampa. The measures were ordered by the public prosecutor of Busto Arsizio as part of an investigation into an alleged case of corruption in India.
The Swiss police authorities are also making two arrests in Lugano. They would be the two intermediaries in the Finmeccanica deal with the Indian government, Guido Haschke and his partner Carlo Gerosa. At the center of the investigation is the sale of 12 AgustaWestland helicopters to the Indian government.
The story concerns the contract, obtained in 2010, for the supply of twelve helicopters to the Indian government by Agusta Westland, controlled by Finmeccanica, and of which Orsi was the managing director at the time.
Of the Indian affair worth 556 million euros, 51 would have been used to pay bribes to secure the order. It was the former head of external relations at Finmeccanica from the era of Pierfrancesco Guarguaglini, Lorenzo Borgogni, who spoke of alleged bribes to the Neapolitan prosecutors. Part of this money, again according to Borgogni, would then end up in the Northern League.
The Carroccio has always denied any involvement and his secretary, Roberto Maroni, was in the public prosecutor's office in Busto Arsizio last September to file a complaint for slander against Borgogni.
