Sadly, the U.S. DOJ has terminated the investigation into corrupt deals between the Canadian company Bombardier and Azerbaijani government

Sadly, the U.S. DOJ has terminated the investigation into corrupt deals between the Canadian company Bombardier and Azerbaijani government

The U.S. Department of Justice has terminated the investigation into corrupt deals involving the Canadian company Bombardier , in which former Azerbaijani Transport Minister Ziya Mammadov and his deputy, ex-head of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC Arif Askerov were mentioned.

According to Canadian media reports, on 1 April, Bombardier received an official notification from the Ministry. The company itself confirmed receipt of the letter.

‘The U.S. Department of Justice has advised that, after reviewing all circumstances based on the information gathered, it is terminating both investigations related to the Indonesia and Azerbaijan Railways contracts,’ the Canadian company said in its latest financial report.

The US Department of Justice refused to comment on the decision.

It is known that the investigation into Bombardier's contract with Azerbaijan began in 2020, and into the sale of aircraft to Indonesian airline Garuda Airlines - in 2021. Bombardier also declined to comment further.

In February, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing the Justice Department to stop enforcing the country's main anti-corruption law, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). However, it is unclear whether this decree has affected the decision in the Bombardier case.

It should be recalled that in 2013, a contract was signed between the Ministry of Transport of Azerbaijan and a Canadian company for the supply of signalling equipment for the Baku-Gazakh-Beyuk Kesik railway line. The contractor was Bombardier Transportation, a Swedish subsidiary of Bombardier. The total cost of the project was $350 million. The investigation revealed that about $100 million of this amount was transferred to high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Transport through offshore companies in the form of kickbacks.

At the time, the Ministry of Transport of Azerbaijan was headed by Ziya Mammadov and Azerbaijan Railways, which was part of the Ministry, was headed by Arif Askerov.

In Sweden, a criminal investigation was initiated in this case, and executives of Bombardier Transportation, including the company's vice-president Thomas Beamer, were prosecuted.

The materials of the criminal case indicate that one of the representatives of the Azerbaijani railway department, who received a kickback of $100 million, also represented a local company, Trans Signal Rabita. This company won a tender organised by the Ministry of Transport together with the Swedish Bombardier. Multiserv Overseas Ltd, an offshore intermediary founded by former Russian Railways chief Vladimir Yakunin, was used to transfer the kickbacks.

Multiserv Overseas Ltd is a fictitious company through which Bombardier received a $340 million contract in Azerbaijan. The same company was also involved in Bombardier's projects in Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.

The indictment against Thomas Beamer states that in a corrupt transaction, 46 Ebilock-950 devices were sent directly to Azerbaijan, while payments were made through a London-registered company, Multiserv Overseas, which had no office, address or contact numbers. The equipment was subsequently sold to Azerbaijan at 5.5 times its real value. According to the investigation, officials from Azerbaijan received about $100 million in kickbacks from the scheme.

In December 2021, a court in Stockholm acquitted Thomas Beamer, acknowledging that his defence had succeeded in convincing the court that he was unaware of the corruption component of the deal.

GIR media reports that the investigation into the case, which was launched by the World Bank in 2017, is still ongoing. In addition, Canadian law enforcement authorities continue to review the contract between Bombardier and the Indonesian airline Garuda Airlines, concluded in 2011-2012, under which the Canadian company sold several aircraft to Indonesia.