Rolls-Royce accused of making £10m of illegal payments

Rolls-Royce, based in Derby, is being accused of being involved in corruption by the BBC after an investigation appears to have uncovered £10m in payments to an unregistered agent.

The BBC’s Panorama programme says its has found “suspicious” payments of cash that may have helped Rolls-Royce win a major contract to build engines for Hawk aircraft.

It is illegal to pay agents to win defence contracts in India, but Panorama says its investigation suggests Rolls-Royce paid the money to companies linked to arms dealer Sudhir Choudhrie.

Choudhrie is also on an Indian government blacklist of people suspected of “corrupt or irregular practice”.

The Undesirable Contact Men list says that Indian civil servants and government ministers should “take extra care” when dealing with “unscrupulous persons”.

Choundrie, who is a billionaire and lives in London, denies all allegations. He is an adviser on India to Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron and the BBC says his family has donated more than £1.6m to the Party.

Rolls-Royce says it is “fully co-operating with the authorities” and “cannot comment on ongoing investigations”.