Dassault Aviation, the manufacturer of French combat jet Rafale, paid at least Euros 508,925 against an invoice for Euro 1 million raised by an Indian firm controlled by a middleman — Sushen Gupta — already under investigation in the AgustaWestland case, French online investigative journal Mediapart reported Monday.
This alleged payment came to light during a scheduled audit of Dassault’s 2017 accounts by French anti-corruption agency AFA. While Dassault claimed the money was used to pay Defsys Solutions for manufacturing 50 large replica models of Rafale jets soon after the signing of the Indo-French contract in 2016, according to Mediapart, the company could not furnish any proof to AFA that these models were indeed made.
