The Hindu : Front Page : Bofors case: fresh CBI move to trace Quattrocchi money trail

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Tuesday, Jan 31, 2006

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Front Page

Bofors case: fresh CBI move to trace Quattrocchi money trail

Special Correspondent

Home Ministry clears Letters Rogatory, to be sent to Swiss authorities

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is all set to send Letters Rogatory (LRs) to Swiss authorities in a bid to trace the trail of money deposited in two London bank accounts of Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, a key accused in the Bofors pay-offs case.

The LRs have been cleared by the Union Home Ministry, paving the way for seeking assistance in further probe. The LRs will be sent through diplomatic channels to Switzerland.

The CBI had in its submission through Additional Solicitor-General Gopal Subramanium told the Supreme Court on January 23 that it proposed to send LRs to Swiss authorities to trace the origin of one million dollars and three million euros deposited in Mr. Quattrocchi's accounts.

The accounts were frozen in July 2003 following a CBI request to Crown Prosecution Service London on the ground that the money was suspected to be a part of an alleged illegal pay-off in the Bofors kickbacks, arising out of the Bofors gun deal of 1986.

The Italian business man was in the centre of a storm recently when his accounts were de-freezed after Additional Solicitor-General B. Dutta told Crown Prosecution Service in December 2005 that the CBI had not found proof to link the money lying in the accounts to Bofors payoffs. The money from the two accounts has already been withdrawn, the CBI had told the apex court in its submissions.

The agency will now approach Switzerland through the LRs for details as the funds were transferred from Lugano in Switzerland to London's BSIAG Bank. Earlier in 2004 the agency during the probe had found that the money had not been transferred to the London bank accounts from Bahamas but was transferred from Lugano.

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