Kickbacks Abound

Our confidential sources within Airbus have told us that company payoffs to government officials in target countries was common practice. If the PNF and SFO fully investigated Airbus, they would uncover numerous instances in which high-level foreign government officials were receiving kickbacks from Airbus. Our Airbus sources have also stated that senior French government officials were receiving payments, in addition to a slew of European lobbyists acting as intermediaries between the company and foreign governments. 

Airbus has admitted in very general terms to paying kickbacks. The company alluded to “misstatements and omissions” in its half-yearly financial report published July 27, and confessed to inaccurately reporting the involvement of independent consultants in April (see The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/09/business/international/airbus-britain-corruption-investigation.html?_r=0 ). 

Our Airbus sources claim that if the company makes such a broad apology and pays a public fine, then the details of larger-scale corruption will go unrevealed. In our September 28 post, we highlighted numerous examples of Airbus corruption worldwide. In 2010, for instance, sources tell us that then Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Massimov received 12 million euros, confirmed by Mediapart, as part of a deal of 45 Airbus helicopters to Almaty. The sources also reiterated that senior company officials were fully aware and permissive of payoffs being made worldwide during that period. 

As we also previously stated, senior French government officials were receiving payments from Airbus to leverage their political influence in Almaty to help win the helicopter contract with Kazakhstan. Both Aymori de Montesquiou, a Senator in the Elysee, and Etienne Des Rosaies, former assistant to President Sarkozy, met with lawyer Catherine Degoul, who was facilitating commission payments. 
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What remains unclear is why the PNF and SFO are allowing corruption between Airbus and French officials and other instances of wrongdoing to go uninvestigated.