Delhi; 05 April 2021 (UMMN): Dassault agreed to pay one million euro to an Indian middleman just after the signing of Rafale contract in 2016, an investigation by a French publication has revealed.
An amount of 508,925 euro was paid under "gifts to clients".
"The company said the money was used to pay for the manufacture of 50 large replica models of Rafale jets, even though the inspectors were given no proof that these models were made," Mediapart reported.
According to India Today TV, the invoice, dated March 30, 2017, suggested that Defsys was paid for manufacturing 50 dummy models of the Rafale jets at euro 20,357 each.
However, the Dassault group was unable to provide any documentary evidence to the French Anti-Corruption Agency, Agence Française Anticorruption (AFA), which could establish the existence of those models. Dassault could also not explain why the expenditure was listed as a "gift to clients" in their accounts.
