The Italian police has arrested an advisor to Italian defence and aerospace giant Finmeccanica and Italy’s former industry minister is being investigated in a widening international graft probe of the group.
Mr Paolo Pozzessere was arrested on the orders of Naples prosecutors and faces charges of international corruption over contracts between the government of Panama and three Finmeccanica companies, Agusta Westland, Selex and Telespazio.
He is a current advisor to Finmeccanica on its business dealings with Russia and is a former manager for the Rome-based group in which the Italian state holds a 30 per cent stake.
Naples prosecutors are also probing Italy’s former industry minister Claudio Scajola as part of an investigation of Finmeccanica contracts with Brazil and Panama. His spokesman is also said to be under investigation.
Scajola, a conservative MP who was industry minister in the last government led by Silvio Berlusconi, on Tuesday claimed he had always acted “lawfully” when negotiating contracts for Italian companies in Brazil.
“I have always respected the law and the rules. All my meetings have been transparent... I am immediately available to be heard by magistrates in this investigation,” he stated.
Scajola was forced to resign his ministerial post in May 2010 amid a scandal over his involvement in a shady Rome property deal.
The Naples home of Paolo Graziano head of Italy’s main business lobby, Confindustria and its offices were searched by the police on the orders of prosecutors said to be probing contracts in Brazil by Rome-based Finmeccanica and Trieste-based shipbuilding group Fincantieri in Brazil.
The probe, led by Naples prosecutors in one of several underway at Finmeccanica, whose chairman and chief executive Giuseppe Orsi is under investigation over a 560 million euro Indian helicopter contract.
Some politicians have questioned whether Orsi should remain in charge of the country’s second-biggest private group, although he has vowed to stay in his post and clear is name. The widening investigation has underlined the extent of links between government officials and Finmeccanica.