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Quattrocchi's U.K. bank accounts frozen

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI JULY 28. Authorities in the U.K. have frozen two bank accounts of the Italian businessman, Ottavio Quattrocchi, acting on a request by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The two accounts have some £3 million in them.

The CBI has reasons to believe that the money in the two accounts could be part of the Rs. 64 crore Bofors pay-offs. Mr. Quattrocchi, who is an accused in the Bofors case, is believed to have taken refuge in Milan, Italy, after the CBI's attempts to extradite him from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, failed recently.

The CBI took up the matter in the higher courts, and it is now before the Court of Appeals in Kuala Lumpur. The agency is also in touch with the Italian authorities for ascertaining his whereabouts through the Interpol and the diplomatic channels. Mr. Quattrocchi also faces a chargesheet filed against him in a Delhi Court.

Information about the bank accounts was received from Interpol in the last week of June. A Letter Rogatory was then issued by a competent court here for investigation into the accounts. A request was also sent for freezing them. Interpol-London informed the CBI today that the Crown Prosecution Service had obtained the requisite restraint order, putting a freeze on the operation of the accounts, official sources said here.

Investigations revealed that Mr. Quattrocchi received about $7 million from M/s. AB Bofors through M/s. AE Services, a U.K.-based company. After receiving the money, he had transferred the funds from one account to another and from one jurisdiction to another to avoid detection and to evade the due process of law.

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CBI seeks freezing of yet another Quattrocchi account

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