It was a simple pay-to-play blueprint. There was no elaborate network of shell companies, no string of bank transfers in offshore jurisdictions. Just kickbacks in cash totaling nearly $1.5 million to get contracts for performing major repairs on Russian and Ukrainian made aircrafts.
But the scheme ended early in the morning of Jan. 26 this year when two Ukrainians, employed by the state-owned weapons trader Ukrspetsexport, got into a taxi in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan in Central Asia. The cab whisked them away from the Ramada Plaza hotel to the airport. Just prior to boarding a Kyiv-bound plane, they were arrested by Kazakh security agents.