Italy court acquits former Leonardo top managers in India corruption case

Rome, January 8: An Italian appeals court on Monday acquitted two former Leonardo executives over a bribery case related to a large 2010 helicopter contract to the Indian government.

Giuseppe Orsi, former chief executive of the state-controlled defence group, formerly known as Finmeccanica, and Bruno Spagnolini, once at the head of a helicopter unit AgustaWestland, were cleared of charges as “there isn’t sufficient proof”, according to the sentence read out in court.

In December 2016, Italy’s highest court had ordered a re-trial of the case, after the former executives of the Rome-based group were found guilty on corruption charges related to a 560 million euros ($672 million) contract to supply a dozen helicopters to New Delhi.

A judge earlier that year had sentenced Orsi to four and a half years in prison for corruption and falsifying invoices and Spagnolini to four years in jail.

In 2011, prosecutors in Naples began investigating Orsi, shortly after he was promoted from CEO of AgustaWestland to CEO of Finmeccanica. Prosecutors were looking into whether AgustaWestland paid bribes to secure the €560 million sales of 12 helicopters to the Indian government and, if so, what role Orsi had in this scheme. The probe was triggered by accusations made by Borgogni, who supplied prosecutors with details of kickbacks supposedly paid by AgustaWestland to guarantee purchase of the helicopters.