Arms deals, bribery, corruption: The ABC of Choudhries at centre of Rolls Royce case

But Choudhrie’s tales of survival go back a long way — he was born with a leaky valve in his heart, nearly choked to death twice due to a severe allergy to seafood and iodine, permanently damaged his right eye at 12 during a hockey match, suffered debilitating bouts of migraine until he was in his 50s, and almost gave up on his vision due to a retinal complication in his 40s. Before the good American surgeons gave him a new heart, his vision was saved by a “miracle” performed by a Russian surgeon in Moscow.

Born in 1949, Choudhrie lost his father in a car crash when he was four and grew up with his elder brother Rajiv at the palatial house of his grandfather who came to Delhi from Punjab in the 1920s and started a successful catering and real-estate business. The grandparents doted on the brothers and, as Choudhrie recalls in his memoir, once gifted them a pair of tiger cubs to pet.

Fast Forward

It took roughly half a century for that boy to emerge as allegedly one of the biggest international arms dealers. In 2006, Choudhrie figured in a CBI probe into the Defence ministry’s contract with Israeli firm Soltam to upgrade 130-mm field guns and the Barak missile deal.

But, as always, he survived this scare: in 2011, the CBI gave him a “clean chit” in the Rs 208-crore Soltam deal and the Enforcement Directorate, which commenced a probe into the financial transactions of the deal, did not find any evidence of violation either. The CBI also closed the Barak missile deal case in 2013.

The next year, Choudhrie and his elder son Bhanu were arrested as part of a Serious Fraud Office probe in London for allegedly helping British company Rolls Royce pay bribes to secure contracts in China and Indonesia but the case against them was subsequently dropped.

In 2014, Bhanu Choudhrie and his father were arrested as part of a Serious Fraud Office probe in London for allegedly helping Rolls-Royce pay bribes to secure contracts. The case against them was subsequently dropped for lack of evidence. (Credit: C&C Alpha Group)

The CBI, however, caught up with him again this week when the agency booked him and Bhanu, along with Rolls Royce and British Aerospace Systems, for alleged corruption in the procurement of Advanced Jet Trainer (AJT) aircraft in 2004. According to the CBI, the accused conspired with unknown public servants who abused their positions to approve and procure 24 Hawk 115 AJT aircraft for GBP 734.21 million — besides permitting licence manufacturing of 42 aircraft by M/s Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) against materials supplied for an additional amount of USD 308.247 million. Another USD 7.5 million was towards manufacturing licence fees, allegedly in lieu of bribes, commissions and kickbacks to intermediaries.

In 2006-07, vital documents pertaining to the deal were seized from the premises of Rolls Royce India Pvt Ltd during a raid by the Income Tax Department. But the accused persons, according to the CBI, caused the disappearance/removal/destruction of those documents to evade investigation.

The India chapter

Choudhrie did his schooling at St Columbus and later graduated in Economics. In 1975, 26-year-old Choudhrie set up an export company in Delhi. From catering and real estate, the family’s business empire would soon spread into export, aviation, IT support, hospitality etc.

In his 2017 biography From My Heart — A Tale of Life, Love and Destiny, Choudhrie recalled the family’s proximity to the Gandhis by quoting Indira Gandhi’s powerful personal secretary R K Dhawan: “As relations grew between us and the Choudhrie family, you all came to know the Gandhi family and we all became close friends. During Indira Gandhi’s difficult time from 1977 to 1980, when she was no longer Prime Minister, the Choudhrie family stood behind her in all possible ways and offered all the help you could, which meant she had a very soft spot for you all.”

The cover of Sudhir Choudhrie’s biography, From My Heart — A Tale of Life, Love and Destiny. (Credit: Amazon)

Choudhrie got married in 1976 and son Bhanu was born in 1978. In the late 1970s, Choudhrie started doing business with Russian companies and soon took an interest in defence deals. Between 1993 and 2004, Choudhrie had diplomatic protection as Latvia’s Honorary Consul General to India.

Choudhrie was close to his brother Rajiv who he lost in 1998. Rajiv’s son Dhruv is part of the Choudhrie family business while daughter Simran is married to Bakul Nath, son of Congress leader Kamal Nath.

In 2004, Choudhrie set up Stellar International Art Foundation (Panama) with Bhanu and younger son Dhairya as equal beneficiaries. The Foundation owns over 600 works of renowned artists including M F Husain, Paresh Maity, Anish Kapoor, Pablo Picasso, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Andy Warhol.

Choudhrie’s other passion is collecting cars. “It’s just that when I was still very young, my collection was of Dinky cars, eventually over one hundred of them. That deep love of cars endured in me — in later years, I was to build up a superb collection of vintage motors, which I now keep in Delhi, and which is one of the greatest passions of my adult life,” he wrote in his biography.

Boom years in London

In 2002, cousins Bhanu and Dhruv set up C&C Alpha Group in London. Sumant, son of Choudhrie’s uncle B K Kapur who served as a chairman of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), was also part of the family business.

In 2003, Bhanu married Simrin, daughter of Amarjit Singh Bakshi, the owner of the Bakshi Group that’s involved in automotive industries, infrastructure, real estate, hospitality and defence sectors. The couple had a son in 2011. Bhanu’s younger brother Dhairya is married to Karina, a jeweller.

In 2016, JPMorgan Chase flagged 13 transactions totalling $1.84 million involving Dhairya Choudhrie, his older brother, then sister-in-law, Dhairya’s wife Karina, and Optima International Group SA (BVI) for suspected money laundering and suspicious use of multiple accounts. (Credit: C&C Alpha Group)

In 2006, when Choudhrie’s name figured in the CBI probe into the Defence ministry’s contract with Israeli firm Soltam, he permanently shifted base from Delhi and the family moved into a mansion in London’s Belgravia. By then, the Choudhries had started backing the Liberal Democrats in the UK and have made well over £1.5 million in donations since.

Choudhrie has also been a long-time patron of Green Templeton College at the University of Oxford, where he holds an honorary Radcliffe fellowship at the college and has supported the annual GTC Emerging Markets Symposium since 2007.

In 2013, Choudhrie was awarded the Asian Business Lifetime Achievement Year Award by Theresa May, then Home Secretary of the UK.

Choudhrie’s elder son Bhanu, educated at Boston University, is apparently passionate about his fitness. His father describes him as “extremely health conscious, at one point a state champion in sprinting, show jumping and dressage and playing polo” and one who spends time in the gym and is “self-disciplined, drinking in moderation and confining himself to the very occasional cigar.”

In 2011, Bhanu’s wife Simrin made headlines by appearing on the British television series The Secret Millionaire. Disguised as an impoverished, pregnant woman, she stayed at a community centre for the vulnerable and socially excluded in Sheffield. A Guardian report says, “After a week of volunteering, she did her reveal: she was really a billionaire who would write six-figure cheques to those she considered worthy.” She admitted she never cooked dinner for herself and donated £100,000.

The hiccups

The unthinkable happened in 2014 when Choudhrie and Bhanu were arrested as part of a Serious Fraud Office probe in London for allegedly helping Rolls-Royce pay bribes to secure contracts. While the case against them was subsequently dropped for lack of evidence, this was widely perceived as a setback for the family.

In 2017, Simrin filed for divorce and demanded a lump sum of £100 million. The next year, Bhanu went to court to prevent her from disclosing “pillow talk” about his part in a Rolls-Royce corruption probe in 2014. He admitted he disclosed confidential information to his wife for moral support and comfort but now wanted an order directing her to disclose who she shared the information with.

In 2019, the court ruled against Bhanu, holding that the claim disclosed no reasonable grounds for pursuing the relief sought and that it was an abuse of the Court’s process. In 2020, Simrin was awarded £60 million as alimony.

Barely a week after the settlement order, Bhanu made headlines for a relationship with Tamara Ralph, the co-founder of the British fashion house Ralph & Russo. They had a daughter in 2021.

Trails of wealth

Names of Choudhrie family members have surfaced repeatedly in international probes in suspicious financial transactions. As reported by The Indian Express in the Panama Papers (2016) and FinCen Files (2020) investigations, Bhanu was a director in two BVI companies — Belinea Services Ltd and Anterna Ltd — that made over 200 transactions worth at least $118 million between 2009 and 2014. These transactions were flagged by Bank of China, Bank of New York Mellon and JPMorgan Chase for suspected “money laundering/structuring”.

Earlier in 2008, a report by a risk management team in Clariden Leu, then a private banking division of Credit Suisse, noted that Choudhrie family group entities, including Belinea Services Limited, received over USD 100 million in 18 accounts from Russian arms companies, such as Rosoboronexport and PJSC RAC MIG, during 2007-08.

As reported by The Indian Express in the Pandora Papers (2021) investigation, Bhanu controlled a Cyprus entity — Lifedream Trading Ltd — set up in 2001 and owned through Kimba Ventures Ltd (BVI).

In 2016, JPMorgan Chase flagged 13 transactions totalling $1.84 million involving Bhanu, his younger brother Dhairya, Bhanu’s then-wife Simrin, Dhairya’s wife Karina, and Optima International Group SA (BVI) for suspected money laundering and suspicious use of multiple accounts. Optima International was incorporated in July 2007 for the purpose of “investment holding in Switzerland” and Bhanu was the ultimate beneficial owner (UBO).

Days after the Panama Papers investigation hit the stands in April 2016, Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca decided to drop Optima International as a client and flagged the company to the BVI’s Financial Investigation Agency for “crime/fraud”, reporting that Bhanu and Choudhrie were arrested by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office in a probe into bribery allegations at British Aerospace and Rolls-Royce.