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Hardip Singh aka Peter Virdee v The National Crime Agency – Case Law

Hardip Singh aka Peter Virdee v The National Crime Agency – Case Law


Justice Holroyd

-and-

Justice Dingemans

Jonathan Lennon (by Cam Todner) for claimant

Andrew Bird (by GLD) for first defendant

Hearing Date: April 19, 2018

Justice Holroyd 1

This is a court decision, and we all contributed to it.

2

The court has two applications for judicial review. First, plaintiffs Mr. Virdee and Mr. Trutschler challenge the defendants’ decision by the National Crime Agency (“NCA”) not to return seized items following an alleged unlawful arrest and search on July 26, 2017. , the claimant challenged the production orders issued by the judges of the Central Criminal Court (“CCC”) on 24 May, 16 June and 9 August 2017, alleging that the NCA failed to candid disclosure. Both claims were licensed by Ouseley J, who instructed them to be heard together.

fact:

3

Mr. Virdee is a director of many companies. One of them is PV Energy Ltd (“PVE”), a business engaged in the provision of renewable energy and solar energy. Ownership of PVE is divided between an investment company and a Swiss company, Meeco Group. As of May 5, 2017, Mr. Virdee was the majority shareholder of the investment firm. It is now wholly owned by his father. Meeco Group is owned by Mr. Trutschler’s wife. Mr. Trutschler is an employee of PVE. Essentially, Mr. Virdee focuses on the contractual aspects of PVE, while Mr. Trutschler provides technical expertise. PVE does not have any operations in the UK, but has entered into engineering, procurement and construction contracts related to renewable energy and solar supply in a number of other countries.

4

From approximately 2014, PVE has been very interested in entering into such contracts in Antigua and Barbuda (“Antigua”) and St. Kitts and Nevis (“St. Kitts”) in the Caribbean. The solar project with Antigua came to a successful conclusion. There was no evidence in court of any contract with St Kitts. During discussions and negotiations on the contract with Antigua and a possible contract with St. Kitts, Mr. Virdee and Mr. Trutschler dealt with the Prime Minister of Antigua, the then Minister of Tourism, Energy and Development of Antigua, and the Prime Minister of St. Kitts.

5

Between January 31, 2015 and January 26, 2017, Mr. Virdee’s phone calls were intercepted by German authorities who suspected him of being involved in VAT carousel fraud. The warrant for Mr. Virdee’s arrest on suspicion of involvement in fraudulent activity was issued in Germany. German authorities subsequently issued a European arrest warrant. On 10 January 2017, Mr Virdee was arrested at Heathrow Airport under the latter warrant. He was granted bail pending extradition proceedings. His legal representative in Germany successfully challenged the German arrest warrant: the warrant was withdrawn on June 28, 2017, and the extradition proceedings fell through.

6

During an investigation into alleged VAT fraud, German authorities intercepted calls that led them to suspect that Mr. Virdee and Mr. Trutschler may have been involved in bribery and/or corruption related to PVE’s activities in the Caribbean. Mr. Virdee’s German lawyers sent a letter to German authorities on 1 March 2017, claiming that any prosecution of corruption by German authorities is unfounded. Regarding PVE’s project in Antigua, the letter states: Mr. Trutschler was unexpectedly approached by the Minister of Tourism of Antigua, asking for a financial contribution in exchange for a successful mediation of the energy project; Mr. Trutschler rejected the request. No further request was made to Mr. Trutschler; the Minister subsequently made a similar request to Mr. Virdee; Mr. Virdee also “rejected the request as to the nature and amount of the payment”; no financial contribution was made to the Minister.

7

On March 23, 2017, German authorities provided the NCA with phone recordings intercepted on February 7, March 12, July 12, August 5, August 11, and November 9, 2016. The German authorities did not provide a copy of the NCA’s letter from the German lawyer, but it was mentioned in the following clause:

“In a communication dated March 1, 2017, the German defence lawyer for the alleged perpetrator denies the above findings that the alleged perpetrator Peter Singh Virdee may be a member of the government (acting prime minister … in particular) in Ankara. Tigua and Barbuda. In addition to the legal objections raised against the allegations, it was specifically argued that it was not the alleged perpetrator, nor Trutschler, but the ministers there who raised such a criminal law-related “offer,” and this request was ultimately rejected by the alleged perpetrator and Trutschler.”

8

Shortly after receiving this material, the NCA began a bribery/corruption investigation of the claimant.

9

The court has received six dated recordings of the phone calls. In most cases, they are conversations between claimants. At one point, they participated in a conference call that also included the Minister of Energy of Antigua. Undoubtedly, transcripts contain many topics about payments or gifts to government officials. However, there is a dispute between the parties over the claimant’s attitude towards such payments or gifts as revealed in the transcript. It was filed on behalf of the claimants and it is clear from the transcript that they refused to involve themselves or the PVE in the payment of any bribes or any other corrupt activity despite the demands made against them. It was filed on behalf of the NCA, and instead, it is clear from the transcript that the claimant was ready and willing to pay bribes and had made at least one gift to politicians in the Caribbean, but was seeking to negotiate lower corruption payments that exceeded theirs. Require.

10

The claimant denies any wrongdoing. It is not necessary, nor appropriate, to delve into the details of the transcript. However, it is necessary to refer to some of these key passages for obvious reasons.

11

Transcripts of conversations between claimants dated March 12, 2016 show Mr Virdee told Mr Trutschler that when he last spoke with “our friend” he had “a heated argument”. Later in the conversation, Mr. Virdee referred to “our friends” in the name of the Minister of Energy of Antigua. He complained that “our friends” kept saying he needed 2 million, which Mr Virdee said he had answered –

“What do you mean, ‘I need 2 million’? and I said ‘you can’t just take 2 million. You can’t just say ‘I need 2 million because I make a lot of gravy, and you know, you’re buying volume, That’s why there should be more…”. I said, ‘This is why behind the fact that we’re buying volume, we can afford to be screwed by you guys for 1.5 million. If we didn’t buy volume, we couldn’t have bought 150 $10,000 to close the deal. As Secretary of Energy, you have 20 to 30 people coming to your office every day, and you show me one of them saying to you that they can do the same quality, the same The product.”

Mr Virdee also said that “our friend” falsely claimed that Mr Virdee had promised his mother a car. He told Mr Truchler that he was once asked for a watch and he took it off and handed it to the minister. He continued:

“He gave me my watch back and said ‘Can you buy a car for my mom?’ I said ‘I’ll think about it.’ Then on my next visit he said ‘You promise to give my mom a car?’ car”. I said ‘I’ll buy you a car no problem, no problem, but I can’t give you a large sum of money you don’t have a right to get, then give the party money, and then go buy you a car’. I said’ Yeah, we’ll buy you a car, that’s not a problem, but just give us some breathing room.’ And he’s gone…he’s gone to the point where he’s just really annoying talk, you know me Say to him ‘you know what, fuck yourself, I’m done, I can’t take this headache’.

12

Later in the same conversation, Mr. Virdee told Mr. Trutschler that the Prime Minister of St. Kitts was visiting, saying:

“Tonight I’m taking him and his entourage out to dinner and then we’re going to have a party, so be prepared to pay the big bills, but in the meantime, he said he wanted a nice watch. I said ‘Ok Yes. Then he called me this morning and he said ‘do you have my watch?’ and I said ‘oh, I have to pick up your watch’. That’s it. Last Saturday, last Sunday, when he I was talking to him at the airport hotel on a connecting flight to Dubai and he said, ‘Listen, I’m in favor of this, I’ll send my minister down’ and I said ‘but you told me you’re in favor of it, it didn’t help… …

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