SriLankan Airlines (UL, Colombo International) is seeking legal advice to ascertain whether there is a case in which it can sue Airbus (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) for compensation, along similar lines to the manufacturer agreeing on January 31 to pay EUR3.6 billion euros (USD3.98 billion) in a global bribery settlement that tarnished the reputation of the Sri Lankan flag carrier.
“SLA [SriLankan Airlines] will seek legal advice on getting compensation from Airbus. We will first study the official documents released by the Serious Fraud Office of the UK, which has ruled on this matter,” Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation Prasanna Ranatunga told the country's parliament on February 7, as reported by Sri Lanka's Daily FT.
As previously reported, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has ordered an investigation into the allegation that Airbus offered bribes to SriLankan to ease a re-fleeting programme in 2013. Detailed findings on the case in the January 31 Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) by the UK's Serious Fraud Office say that Airbus had hired the wife of a SriLankan Airlines executive as an intermediary and misled the export credit agency UK Export Finance over her name.
In 2013, according to the DPA, Airbus engaged Intermediary 1, the wife of the unnamed executive, via her Brunei-registered straw company - a company legally owned by someone on behalf of someone else. Airbus employees allegedly offered up to USD16.84 million to this company to influence the purchase of six A330-300s and four A350-900s and the lease of an additional four A350s. Only USD2 million of the sum was paid, in a transfer made on December 27, 2013, the DPA said.
Former CEO Kapila Chandrasena and his wife Priyanka Niyomali Wijenayake were subsequently arrested on money laundering charges on February 6 and have been remanded until February 19 by the Colombo Fort Magistrate Court, according to local reports.
The parliament will debate the Airbus deal further on February 20, and officials from SriLankan will be summoned to appear before the Parliament Committee on Public Enterprises this week, according to Daily FT.
Ranatunga also revealed on February 7 that SriLankan Airlines had lodged a complaint with the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC) over the bribery allegations regarding Chandrasena and his wife. He promised a fair trial and that “action will be taken against the wrongdoers [and] there will be no interference in this matter by the government.”
Nishantha Wickremasinghe was the airline's chairman when the Airbus agreements were signed. One of the members of the board was Shameendra Rajapaksa, a nephew of the current president as well as the nephew of the current prime minister and former president Mahinda Rajapaksa.
