India Today has managed to track down mystery man Shakil Fakeermahamood, who funnelled Agusta kickbacks into India on Gautam Khaitan’s instructions.
While the probe by Indian agencies into the AgustWestland VVIP chopper deal scandal continues at snail’s pace, India Today has managed to dig in explosive revelations surrounding the country’s biggest arms scandal since Bofors.
India Today has managed to track down the cash trail in the AgustaWestland chopper deal to Mauritius.
From the Enforcement Directorate’s chargesheet, to phone intercepts between the Agusta middlemen to India’s official letters to other countries, all of them explicitly state that the kickbacks were likely routed through an Indian Ocean island. India’s Today’s hunt for truth has revealed that the dirty money moved from Mauritius.
The mystery man – Shakil Fakeermahamood
A chargesheet filed by Indian agencies in the Agusta case mentions one Shakil Fakeermahamood.
Fakeermahamood is the person who allegedly handled the flow of kickbacks through Mauritius at the instructions of one of the main scam suspects, Delhi-based lawyer Gautam Khaitan, who is currently out on bail.
Undercover India Today reporters have hunt down Fakeermahamood in Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius.
How is Fakeermahamood related to Agusta scam:
- He is privy to confidential emails from Gautam Khaitan.
- Managed Khaitan’s Interstellar Technologies in Mauritius by proxy
- Privy to secret transactions in dollars and euros to unknown destinations
Here’s the transcript of the conversation that India Today reporters, who posed as real estate agents, had with Fakeermahamood:
Reporter (R): Sir, we are from India. We have real estate consultancy firm in Gurgaon.
Shakil Fakeermahamood (SF): OK
R: We are dealing with various clients. One of our clients is into trust. It is based in UK.
After a long chat Fakeermahamood is beaten in his own game. Candidly, he offers his advice demonstrating the kickbacks professional that he is.
He advised India Today reporters to apply for a permit to set up a shell company in Mauritius, that’s the key to funnelling kickbacks.
R: Sir, our clients have agricultural products business.
SF: The best structure would be trustee… you have to give me trust deed. I will know who is the trustee. Then trustee forms Global Business License 1 company in Mauritius and GBL 1 invests in India through an industry which is allowed. Now, there is no issue of tax as there is no income. The trustee is extending itself through investments through assets.
Here’s what Fakeermahamood said when reporters asked him about Gautam Khaitan
R: So you know Gautam Khaitan, the top lawyer?
SF: Yes, everybody knows him in Mauritius. He was adviser of Financial Services Commission
R: OK…
SF: He was negotiating on the tax treaty with India. He was…If you take the case of Mr Khaitan, he is a lawyer. Everybody pays consultancy fees.
R: Yes
SF: The guy who negotiated to get the contract from the Italian company was paid consultancy fees for their work to be done for this thing.
R: Yeah…
SF: You see how it happened. Now, what they will do afterwards because there’s a contract everywhere. Everybody is assigned a responsibility. Now, if some money was given… money from… a public servant… Tyagi…
R: Tyagi… Tyagi
SF: Chief… chief
R: SP Tyagi, Mr SP Tyagi
SF: Air-Force officer… Now, if he has received money. We should know…with whom he has received that money. But it was a deal. It was not fictitious from A to Z. There was a contract. I can understand. It is a commercial transaction.
R: According to media reports, Gautam Khaitan looks like mastermind of the deal.
SF: He cannot be the mastermind. He is a lawyer, how can he be the mastermind?
THE MODUS OPERANDI
Once the shell company is formed, the Mauritian kickbacks factory blossoms with hundreds of consultants suddenly available to work the scam. A brilliant, well-oiled nexus between local money hustlers and overseas law-dodgers.
The kickbacks money gets funnelled to nations in various seemingly innocent ways. For India, it’s the FDI route.
Mauritius is a fertile market for operatives like Fakeermahamood, courtesy of local laws.
Business comes to them in steady streams and that perhaps explains the reason why they work on the low-price, high-volume model.
Billions of unaccounted dollars are channelled from this hideaway for as low a fee as $20,000 a year – all with ease and without taxes.
This is how the Agusta scam money entered India.
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