DMRC officials received bribes: UK prosecutor

Unnamed Delhi Metro Rail Corporation officials were the recipients of bribes in the €3.3-million bribery case against Alstom, a UK prosecutor alleged this week.

During proceedings it also emerged that Robert Hallett, the former managing director of Alstom Transport India, is set to appear in court in early November, following a requisition order, when a preliminary hearing date will be set in the case against him.

An extradition order has been sent to Switzerland-based Bruno Kaelin, and a former Alstom executive, while discussions are underway with the legal representative of another former employee, Graham Hill, currently based in France who is said to have health problems. Both Kaelin and Hill were founding members of Alstom International Ltd.

In a hearing that took place in Southwark Crown Court in London on Monday, Simon Farrell, QC, revealed further details of the prosecution’s case relating to alleged payments made by Alstom Network UK Ltd, a division of French industrial group Alstom, to secure infrastructure contracts in India, Poland and Tunisia.

While some of the alleged recipients of the bribes relating to the other two countries were named — including a former deputy Mayor of Warsaw, and the brother-in-law of the former President of Tunisia — the Indian officials were not named.

The prosecution also said that further prosecutions involving Alstom projects in Lithuania and Hungary were being planned. In requisition documents published last month, Britain’s Serious Fraud Office alleged that Alstom Network UK made payments disguised as “consultancy agreements” to a number of companies including one called “Indo European Ventures Pte Ltd” and another called “Global King Technology Ltd” in 2001 and 2002 respectively.

The payments were meant to be “inducements for showing favour” to Alstom for a contract for a train control signalling and telecommunication system for Delhi Metro, the requisition document said.

The case is set to continue on January 28, when a plea and case management hearing takes place (where the defendant would have to enter a plea, and it is established whether there is enough information for a trial date to be set).

The prosecution has until 18 November to submit its evidence. The case follows a four-year investigation — code-named Operation Ruthenium — by the Serious Fraud Office into suspected corruption involved in overseas contracts.

The investigation into Alstom subsidiaries has spanned several countries across the world. In July, a former senior executive of a US subsidiary of Alstom pleaded guilty to participating in a scheme to pay bribes relating to the awarding of a power project in Indonesia.

The SFO itself began the investigation after being provided with information by Switzerland’s Office of the Attorney General.

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