To ascertain money trail, probe agencies looking to identify Michel's local, overseas assets

Investigative agencies are looking to identify foreign and domestic assets of Christian Michel, alleged middleman in the AgustaWestland scam, to unravel the purported kickbacks generated by him and his associates to swing the defence deal in the favour of the Anglo-Italian firm.

Officials involved in the probe said investigative agencies have detected that Michel possesses properties and bank accounts in at least four countries and they suspect that a number of them have been created during the time the deal was being inked.

They suspect some of the assets could also be in India and are held in a 'benami' manner where the actual owner could be linked to the British national, extradited last month to India from the UAE.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) in 2015 had attached properties worth about Rs 1.12 crore in Delhi that were linked to Michel under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Officials said the agencies are now looking to identify his assets so that they can be ...