Rheinmetall Executive Charged With Bribery By Indian Police

Indian officials have charged a Rheinmetall Air Defence (RAD) official and two others who allegedly paid bribes on behalf of the company to ensure it wouldn’t get blacklisted in India.  

Police have charged Gerhard Hoy, the India representative of Rheinmetall, with bribery, along with Indian businessman Abhishek Verma and his Romanian-born wife, Anca Neacsu.

Both Verma and Neacsu are currently in police custody but officials declined to say whether they planned to arrest Hoy.

Rheinmetall, after months of silence, today released a statement strongly denying accusations of inappropriate business dealings with the Ganton group of companies and Abhishek Verma. Such allegations lack factual substance, it said.

“RAD clarifies that it made no illicit payments to Ganton or any of its representatives.
Neither did the company collaborate with Ganton in order to prevent an RAD blacklisting in India through illegal means. To substantiate its position, RAD is committed to a close dialogue with Indian authorities and ready to cooperate with them,” the statement said.

“RAD is equally determined to prove that earlier allegations which had led to the company's blacklisting in March 2012 are false. In the Delhi High Court, RAD is challenging the order debarring it from doing business with India's Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) for ten years,” it concluded.

Rheinmetalll, last year, was placed on a blacklist banned from doing business in India after corruption allegations surfaced.

According to Indian authorities, RAD transferred $530,000 to a New York bank account belonging to Ganton Ltd, a Verma-owned U.S.-based company. Verma promised to stall the blacklisting process in exchange for money, according to the police chargesheet filed late on Thursday.