In Sweden, a court begins over Thomas Bimer, the former Vice-President of Bombardier Sweden, a subsidiary of Canadian Bombardier. According to Haqqın.az, Thomas Bimer is accused of granting a kickbacks to “Some Azerbaijani officials” when signing in 2003 the agreement between Bombardier and the then Ministry of Transport of Azerbaijan on the supply of signal equipment in the framework of the Railway Reconstruction Project Baku – Beyuk Kesik. Bimer’s official accusation was presented in June of this year.
It should be noted that a few years ago it turned out that by means of a sharp inflation of prices and the involvement of offshore intermediary companies to Azerbaijani officials from these contracts were translated as a rollback of $ 100 million. This corruption fact caused a large scandal, which led to the resignation of the head of Bombardier. And the World Bank has stopped lending to projects with the participation of this company. At that time, the Ministry of Transport was headed by the Zia Mamedov, and the Ministry of Azerbaijan Railways, which was part of the Ministry of Azerbaijan Railways – Deputy Arig Acerers.
“Thomas Bimer was the head of the department responsible for this project in the company. We believe that he knew that Bombardier had concluded a deal with customers in Azerbaijan,” said Journalists during the indictment Prosecutor Stephen Edlund.
It is reported that the official from the Railways of Azerbaijan, which received a “rollback” of $ 100 million, also represented the local company Trans Signal Rabita. The company won the tender announced by the Ministry of Transport together with the Bombardier Swedish partner. When transmitting “kickbacks”, Multiserv Overseas Ltd services were used, an offshore mediator company founded by the former head of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin.
In the article prepared by the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail from Stockholm, it says that the Swedish prosecutors checked with whom the leaders of the Bombardier head office, located in Canada, signed a contract. That is, they have been aware of a corruption deal.
Prosecutor Staffan Edlund said that the evidence received in the case suggests that the leaders of the Bombardier head office in Montreal agreed to a trade agreement with Multiserv Overseas Ltd.
Gazeta notes that Multiserv Overseas Ltd – “Lipovaya” company used by Bombardier to obtain a contract for $ 340 million in Azerbaijan. This company also participated in Bombardier projects in Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. The partnership agreement was signed in Moscow between the then head of the Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bombardier Pierre Boduan.
“It was a large-scale contract, too big for Stockholm,” the administration of Edlund noted. – Such work is done at the corporate level. “