Ottavio Quattrocchi

Quattrocchi, born in Mascali, province of Catania, Sicily, in 1938, arrived in India in the mid 1960s as the representative of Italian oil and gas firm Eni and its engineering arm Snamprogetti.

His family became close to the Gandhi family based on their connection with Rajiv Gandhi's Italian wife Sonia Gandhi, the former president of Indian National Congress party.

Around 1974, Quattrocchi was introduced to Shri Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi by an Italian named Mr Molinari.

Then Mrs and Mr Quattrocchi started visiting Rajiv Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi.

Children of both sides were frequent visitors to each other.

At that time Rajiv Gandhi was a pilot in Indian Airlines; Italian food and other gifts were also being exchanged between them.

Quattrocchi thus became very close to Rajiv Gandhi and his wife.

Their children grew up together, and based on this friendship,

Quattrocchi had become so influential at the office of the Prime Minister "that bureaucrats used to stand up when Quattrocchi visited them."

Ashok Malik notes in The Pioneer:

From roughly 1980 to 1987 – Indira Gandhi's final years and Rajiv Gandhi's honeymoon years – Quattrocchi had the Midas touch.

No deal was refused to him.

"It was understood," remembers a Congressman from the original Mrs G's days, "that a fertiliser contract meant Snamprogetti. That was considered the favour to Sonia and Rajiv."

That his influence extended to ministers was noted by VP Singh, who initially pursued the Bofors scandal, and whose testimony is summarised in a court judgement:

V.P. Singh, Finance Minister in the Rajiv Gandhi Cabinet, has stated that Quattrocchi had sought appointment with him on a number of occasions but he did not give him any appointment.

Rajiv Gandhi then asked him to meet Mr. Quattrocchi ... The link between the public servants, politicians and Quattrocchi looms large in these deals.

The award of Jagdishpur Fertilizer Plant to Quattrocchi, changing earlier decision for SPIC, is a clear case.

He won about 60 projects for Snamprogetti, including:

In the process, it also became known that for contracts with India, Quattrocchi was the man to approach.

When orders did not go through, as in the

Hazira-Bijapur-Jagdishpur (HBJ) pipeline (1985), where Spie Capag of France had "bid a few hundred crores lower."

Vengeance was swift.

Nawal Kishore Sharma lost his job as petroleum minister and was reduced to Congress general secretary.

PK Kaul found his term as cabinet secretary ending prematurely and was sent to Washington, DC, as ambassador.

The petroleum secretary, AS Gill, never made it to contention for cabinet secretary.

The chairman of the Gas Authority of India, HS Cheema, was removed.

Quattrocchi's role in this scandal, and his proximity to Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi through his wife Sonia Gandhi, is thought to have contributed to the defeat of the Congress Party in the 1989 elections.

In 1999, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) named Quattrocchi in a chargesheet as the conduit for the Bofors bribe.

The Special judge Prem Kumar observed in his order of 14 November 2002:

The case against him was strengthened in June 2003, when Interpol revealed two bank accounts, 5A5151516M and 5A5151516L, held by Quattrocchi and his wife Maria with the BSI AG bank, London, containing Euros 3 million and $1 million, a "curiously large savings for a salaried executive".

In January 2006, these frozen bank accounts were unexpectedly released by India's law ministry, apparently without the consent of the CBI which had asked for them to be frozen.

On 6 February 2007, Quattrocchi was detained in Argentina on the basis of the Interpol warrant.

The Indian investigating agency CBI came under attack for putting up a half-hearted effort towards

his extradition and India lost the case for his extradition in June 2007, the judge remarking that "India did not even present proper legal documents".

Consequently, India was asked to pay Quattrocchi's legal expenses.

Quattrocchi's financier son, Massimo Quattrocchi, grew up with Sonia Gandhi's children Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Vadra.

Massimo was reported to be advising the Luxembourg-based firm Clubinvest on business opportunities in India.

He was also reported as visiting India frequently, and running an office in Bangalore.

Quattrocchi was present in India at the time of his father's Argentina arrest in February 2007, and there is speculation that he may have met Priyanka Vadra around that time.

Ottavio Quattrocchi (1938 – 13 July 2013) was an Italian businessman who was being sought until early 2009 in India for criminal charges for acting as a conduit for bribes in the Bofors scandal.