Five years of investigations into possible corruption at BAE Systems have finally yielded the first criminal charges – an Austrian count who once worked for the British weapons maker was charged last week with bribery involved in fighter jet contracts. Britain’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) charged former BAE agent Alfons Mensdorff-Pouilly with giving bribes for contracts to government officials in three European countries. Reuters had more:
The SFO charged that between January 1, 2002 and December 31, 2008, Mensdorff-Pouilly had conspired with others to give or agree to give corrupt payments to agents of certain central and eastern European governments.
It said Mensdorff-Pouilly was accused of paying off unknown officials of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Austria to secure, or as rewards for having secured, contracts for the supply of SAAB Gripen fighter jets.
No one reported how much money was involved. But Austrian officials last year arrested and questioned Mensdorff-Pouilly in connection with a €13 million payment allegedly made to him by BAE, and in connection with plane-leasing agreements with the Hungarian and Czech governments. Austria was set to prosecute as of last summer. BAE was not commenting after last week’s charges were unveiled, but has continually maintained that the company does not engage in corrupt practices.
Mensdorff-Pouilly was taken into custody Friday, but there’s a chance that he may not go to trial, Under British law, the attorney general must give her consent for the case to proceed. If the case is halted, it wouldn’t be the first time the SFO was thwarted in its attempts to prosecute BAE corruption. In 2006, the then-attorney general halted an SFO investigation into alleged bribery in a multi-billion-pound deal with Saudi Arabia, after Prime Minister Tony Blair said the investigation could harm national security.
Int’l: Arrest in Trafficking Case
Int’l: Austrian Charged in BAE-Related Corruption
Published: 02 February 2010
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Toronto police arrested an Albanian wanted by the FBI for his alleged involvement in a Balkan criminal network that smuggled drugs and cigarettes. From the FBI press release:
(Myfit) Dika was wanted in connection with the takedown of a Balkan criminal enterprise that occurred in New Jersey and New York in March of 2009 in which 26 individuals were charged by indictment with a laundry list of crimes including narcotics and firearms trafficking, money laundering, interstate transportation of stolen property, and criminal conspiracy. At the time, 22 defendants were arrested or already in custody and four of the subjects were fugitives.
Dika is the third of four fugitives who’ve been arrested since November. He and the remaining one, Kujtim Lika, were profiled on the US television show America’s Most Wanted late last year. FBI agents said the tips that came in after the show were helpful in finding and arresting Dika.
Serbia, Italy Arrest 33
Serbia and Italy arrested 33 last week on suspicion of cocaine trafficking, reported Serbian radio-television B92. Three arrests were in Serbia; 30 in Italy. Those arrested included Italians, Serbs, Montenegrins, Albanians and Colombians. The Serbs and Montenegrins were running the organization, according to Italy’s anti-mafia prosecutor Pietro Grasso, and distributing cocaine in Bari and the north of Italy.
In other cocaine trafficking news, Serbian police stepped up the searches of property thought to be owned by two brothers wanted for trafficking cocaine from South America to Europe, and for various murders throughout the former Yugoslavia. Darko and Dusko Saric, both Montenegrins, are wanted in connection with the two tons of cocaine found on a yacht off the coast of Uruguay last year. It was revealed last week, however, that Darko Saric has had Serbian citizenship since 2005. Montenegrin police say that Darko Saric has left the country for an unnamed European country.
Elsewhere on The Peninsula…
Bulgaria’s parliament approved the first reading of the changes to the country’s criminal procedure code last week. The Sofia Echo had some details:
The changes are intended to speed up court procedures and make it more difficult to adjourn trials to return them for pre-trial investigation. They also provide for stand-in lawyers to take the place of defence counsel who absent themselves from hearings, a phenomenon which frequently has led to numerous postponements of trials.
It also provides for a role for police in investigations, rather than – as now – requiring them to stand back awaiting the involvement of investigators.
Several NGOs and the opposition socialists criticized the changes, saying they don’t do enough to protect human and civil rights. The second reading debate on the bill should be in about one month.
Greece’s economic troubles were in the spotlight last week, at Davos and other places. The country is a mess, according to the BBC: its debt is more than its annual GDP, its credit rating is falling, and Greece’s deficits are more than four times over the Eurozone limit. Corruption and tax evasion are a big part of the problem, Transparency International’s Constantinos Bacouris told the BBC:
"We estimate that 30% of GDP is not declared," he said. "We would be in a much healthier situation if our citizens declared all their income, we wouldn't have this huge economic problem."
Albania last week passed a much-lauded “anti-mafia law” that allows the state to seize suspect assets and make the owners defend the source in court.
Russia: Police Raid Enviro Group
Police last week raided offices of an environmental group that had criticized the re-opening of a paper mill on the shores of Lake Baikal, reported the BBC. (The paper concern is owned by oligarch Oleg Deripaska.) According to police, the reason for the raid:
Several computers were confiscated by police, who said they were checking the alleged use of unlicensed software.
A member of the Baikal Environmental Wave group said the raid was linked to its efforts to keep the mill closed.
Italy: Mafia Very Profitable
Italy’s mafia groups last year saw their profits shoot up 12 percent from 2008, even as traditional businesses and countries struggled in the worldwide recession, reported an Italian NGO last week. Bloomberg had the story:
The country’s main crime groups boosted their profit by 12 percent to more than 78 billion euros ($110 billion) between 2008 and 2009, according to Rome-based anti-racketeering group SOS Impresa’s annual report.
Estimated revenue by Italy’s main mafia groups rose 4 percent to 135 billion euros. That exceeds the revenue of oil company Eni SpA, the country’s biggest company by market value, and is almost 9 percent of Italy’s gross domestic product.
“Mafia Inc. doesn’t fear or know crisis,” wrote SOS Impresa. “During an economic slump, the mafia’s money, even though it’s dirty, is mouthwatering.”
SOS Impresa reported that cash businesses like loan-sharking and drug trafficking have been good to Italy’s mob groups in the past year. Drug money flows easily into the above-ground economy, as illustrated by a massive seizure operation in Sicily last week – a Sicilian court seized 15 construction and asphalt companies, and hundreds of other properties belonging to high-ranking Sicilian mob boss Matteo Messina Denaro, who’s still at large. The stock market is another destination for drug money, SOS Impresa reported.
Banner financial year for organized crime or no, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi last week vowed yet again to crush criminal groups in the country. He unveiled a 10-point plan that includes creating an agency to manage assets seized from mobsters, and grouping all anti-mafia laws into a single body of legislation. Berlusconi also called Mafia movies and television shows an “ugly trend” that damage Italy’s reputation, but the New York Times reported that Berlusconi himself has a hand in promoting those shows:
His Mediaset company, Italy’s largest private broadcaster, showed “The Sopranos” to great success on one of its pay channels, while its Canale 5, a free channel, has shown “The Boss of Bosses,” a 2007 miniseries about the Sicilian Mafia boss Salvatore (Totò) Riina, and “The Last Godfather,” a 2008 program about the Sicilian boss Bernardo Provenzano.
Other critics point out that the 10-point plan means nothing after the actions of Berlusconi’s allies in parliament, who are seeking to limit police use of wiretapping and to shorten trials. Dozens of Italian judges walked out of ceremonies marking the start of the judicial year last week in protest over Berlusconi’s efforts to cap the lengths of trials.
