India’s Enforcement Directorate is inspecting a payment of Rs 142 crores which is linked to the 2006 purchase of 43 Airbus jets by Indian Airlines with added aircraft-overhaul facilities that were never built.
Crux of the Matter
A police investigation began in India in 2010, four years after the Indian Airlines order for A320-series narrow-body jets, with a team, later sent to Europe to question Airbus executives. The probe is to find out whether the $2.2 billion Airbus SE jetliner sale to a state-owned airline involved bribes. The investigation is examining benefits to Airbus of Rs 1,000 crores.
Airbus has more fallout to contend with after its $4 billion legal settlement for making payments to win jet orders. Other countries like Malaysia and Sri Lanka named in the investigation have also begun examining deals involving Airbus.
The government had merged Indian Airlines with Air India Ltd. a year after the purchase. Indian probe is also looking at why the $175 million worth specified maintenance provision wasn’t in the final agreement with Airbus and whether its removal involved any corruption. The Enforcement Directorate is seeking help from authorities in France. ED has also reached out to Singapore, where some bank accounts related to suspect transactions have been traced.
Colombian flag-carrier Avianca is also conducting an internal investigation into its relationship with Airbus.
Austrian Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner has said that the country could terminate a 17-year-old purchase of Typhoon jets from the Eurofighter consortium, of which Airbus is a member after the deal was highlighted in the U.S. probe.
Airbus in 2018 had agreed to pay an 81 million-euro ($88 million) fine to end a five-year investigation of the transaction by German prosecutors but the resolution stopped short of saying bribery took place.
Curiopedia
Airbus SE is a European multinational aerospace corporation. In 2019, Airbus was the world’s largest airliner manufacturer and took the most airliner orders. Airbus is registered in the Netherlands. It designs, manufactures and sells civil and military aerospace products worldwide and manufactures aircraft in the European Union and various other countries. The company has three divisions: Commercial Aircraft, Defence and Space, and Helicopters. The company produces and markets the first commercially viable digital fly-by-wire airliner, the Airbus A320, and the world’s largest passenger airliner, the A380. More Info
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