Tatas say FT got Nigeria bribery charge wrong

The bribes, the FT alleged as it quoted the Swiss sentencing order, were paid by several international companies, including Ferrostaal of Germany and India’s ‘Tata’ as part of Gen Abacha’s ‘‘system of systematic corruption’’. The FT said it had a copy of the order.

But speaking to The Indian Express from Coonoor, R Gopalakrishnan, Executive Director of Tata Sons, said the Tatas or even India had nothing to do with what Financial Times had reported.

‘‘Let me categorically state that the Tatas have not done anything wrong and the allegations are ridiculous,’’ Gopalakrishnan said.

He said there was a company called Tractors And Trucks of Africa (Tata), registered in Africa, which had imported trucks from Telco 10 years ago. ‘‘We have nothing to do with this company except that we have supplied trucks to them,’’ Gopalakrishnan said.

He said the group was planning to take legal action against the newspaper for publishing unsubstantiated news.

According to FT, the judgment found subsidiaries of Tata paid about $40m in bribes into the account.

‘‘The company has won contracts to export vehicles to Nigeria for the army and other government agencies,’’ the FT reported. But a Tata spokesman told FT that its records contained no reference to the two entities cited, and the company had made no such payments.

The FT said the judgment of Israeli-born British businessman Uri David by Daniel Zappelli, the attorney-general of the Canton of Geneva, also raised the possibility that UBS, the Swiss bank that held the funds, knew that the account was being used by the Abacha family, an allegation the bank strongly denied.

About $86m from the account, opened on the instruction of David, has been returned to Nigeria.