Clearly, the export successes of the Eurofighter Typhoon seem to be accompanied by repeated legal scandals. After the investigations into the Saudi contract, buried under a layer of defense secrecy and strategic interests, Or the suspicion of corruption and fraud in the sale of fifteen aircraft in Austria, it was the Kuwaiti contract's turn to be suspected of embezzlement.
So according to the Kuwaiti newspaper Ai-Rai citing judicial sources, the Minister of Defense and Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Ahmed Al-Mansour reportedly submitted a report denouncing several violations of the law in the context of the sale of 28 fighters Typhoon, signed in April 2016. Several current and former officials of the Ministry would be implicated, as well as at least one former Minister, whose identity would not have been revealed. The accusations relate to the payment of commissions linked to the contract, but also to the circumvention of regulatory procedures, possibly linked to the selection of the device. Seized by the Ministry, the public prosecutor thus opened an investigation official for corruption this January 25. Although the Kuwaiti contract was negotiated primarily by the Italian Leonardo, the Eurofighter consortium remains primarily owned by Airbus. In fact, the investigation opened in recent days in Kuwait would also seem to relate to another major contract signed in recent years, that of the 30 Caracal helicopters of Airbus Helicopters.
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