UK High Court ruling reveals £380,000 aviation ‘bribe’ allegedly paid to former UP minister Ashok Yadav

London: A senior City lawyer arranged for a £380,000 ‘bribe’ to be paid to a former Indian state official in a failed attempt to unlawfully secure a lucrative aviation contract for her clients, a High Court ruling has revealed.
Gauri Advani, partner and head of national firm Eversheds’ India group, who worked at City firm Denton Wilde Sapte (DWS) when the incident took place, was found to have negligently advised a consortium of travel agents on their attempt to win exclusive rights to sell Air India flights in the UK.
The court found that Advani advised the travel agents outside the scope of her employment with DWS, and was acting instead as an independent deal broker.
Advani arranged a £380,000 payment – which the court found was intended to be a bribe in civil law terms – to Ashok Yadav, a former tourism minister for the state of Uttar Pradesh in India, on behalf of the travel agents in 2002. After this, Yadav broke off communications with Advani. No deal was ever signed between the travel agents and Air India.
The travel agents attempted to sue Advani and DWS for negligence and breach of contract, but Mr Justice Hamblen barred their claim after ruling that the court could not allow the claimants to recover compensation for the consequences of their own wrongful act.
In Nayyar & Ors v DWS and Gauri Advani, Mr Justice Hamblen ruled that, but for the illegality defence, the travel agents would have proved negligence and breach of duty by Advani, and Advani would have been liable to reimburse them 80% of the payment.
The judge accepted DWS’s arguments that the firm was not vicariously liable for Advani’s actions, ruling that the travel agents never formally became clients of DWS, and that Advani’s acts were not of a solicitorial nature.
The travel agents argued that they were innocents and did not appreciate that any impropriety was involved, and that it was inconceivable to them that a reputable solicitor would involve and encourage them in an improper or illegal transaction.
However, the court held that they were experienced businessmen and that it was obvious that the payment was highly irregular, finding that they knew that the payment was intended as a civil law bribe.
04/02/10 James Dean/Law Society Gazette, UK

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Air India - International Feb 2010, Foreign Feb 2010, NACIL Feb 2010