The Italian court wants to know why Christian Michel was paid 44 million Euros in the VVIP chopper scam

Amidst India’s ruling and opposition parties’ constant blame games on the topic of the VVIP chopper scam, some interesting details have surfaced, regarding a scam of Rs 330 crore by Christian Michel, a British businessman.

Even though Michel was paid 44 million euros at that time by AgustaWestland, a large portion of this money is "completely disproportionate" to the work he did for the company, at least this is how Italy’s Milan Court of Appeals has described Mithcel, who is sought by Indian investigators for his involvement in the case, so much so that it was on India's request that Interpol had issued a red corner notice against Michel in December 2015.

Italian prosecutors have put ahead an argument that Michel, along with Guido Hashke, a Swiss-Italian national, influenced Indian officials to pick Agusta's choppers. They have also alleged him to be a key player in the VVIP chopper deal.

As per the Milan court, Michel was paid over 44 million euros by AgustaWestland for various contracts, including a deal to supply spare parts for Indian naval helicopters and a post-contract service deal for the VVIP chopper contract.

In the judgement, the court said that the description of his work for the contracts was "completely disproportionate to the large amount of fees paid to him".

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