Christian Michel is a British businessman and middleman. Reportedly, he has been found guilty for the corruption in the AgustaWestland deal. He has been extradited from Dubai to India in December 2018.
Biography/Wiki
He was born in the United Kingdom in 1964 (Age: 54, As in 2018). His father, Wolfgang Max Richard Michel was also an intermediary and acted as a mediator between Britain’s Labour Party and former Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.
Muammar Gaddafi
Career
Initially, Christian Michel was a chairman and sole director of Entera Corporation, a British company. Later, he started working for AgustaWestland and Finmeccanica, the parent company of the former.
Controversies
- He is an accused middleman in the AgustaWestland chopper deal. He was extradited from Dubai to India on 4 December 2018. Indian authorities probed the charges that Michel organised bribes to propel a ₹3,600-crore deal for VVIP helicopters to be purchased by the Indian Government for the top Indian leaders.
- Michel is among two other middlemen who are also accused by the Enforcement Directorate, a law enforcement agency of India, of getting commission worth €70 million from AgustaWestland to bribe Indian officials who assisted him to do it.
Christian Michel being taken to India from Dubai in December 2018
- For several years, he has also been charged in the Milan court for his role in taking millions of dollars from other companies illegally.
Allegations on Christian Michel
Facts
- His father, Wolfgang Max Richard Michel was also a consultant with AgustaWestland in the 1980s.
- Once he worked for the Entera Corporation, in 2004, Entera Corporation went bankrupt with more than £1.3 million in debt and Michel was banned from doing business in the UK for seven years.
- Between 1987 and 1996, Michel’s father, Wolfgang Max Richard Michel helped the Entera Corporation making more than £2 million from India.
- In AgustaWestland case, Michel is one of the three intermediaries being probed in the case, along with Carlo Gerosa and Guido Haschke.
- According to sources, Carlo Gerosa (71), an Italian and Swiss national, is also a key player in the bribery scandal as the process of manipulating the specifications for VVIP helicopter contract allegedly began after a meeting between him and cousins of the former IAF chief Shashindra Pal Tyagi.
- In 2017, Michel had written a letter to the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi and emphasized that he was a victim of ‘political conspiracy.’
- In November 2018, the UAE-based court finalized the order clearing the way for Michel’s extradition to India.