Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Head Of Italy’s Second Largest Industrial Conglomerate Arrested

Just when you thought you had heard it all – from Spanish politicians to Italian bankers – along comes the CEO of Italy’s Finmeccanica. Giuseppe Orsi has been arrested for his alleged involvement in a bribery to ensure the Italian aerospace company got the order for Indian military helicopters in 2010. The $750 million deal, as reported by the WSJ, is now under investigation by the Indian defense minister but is not the first such ‘bribery scandal’ for Finmeccanica – whose CEO generously offered to step down if the Italian government (which owns 30.2% of the firm) asks him to. The share price plunged over 8% and was halted as analysts suggested – rather remarkably – that this might make it harder for Finmeccanica to compete for contracts in an already difficult market in which governments are cutting back on military spending. The sad truth appears to be that, whether pandemic or recently driven by a tougher economic environment, fraud runs deep – and its just a matter of time before it comes out, especially with the election so close.
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