Himal Press 
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KATHMANDU: AAR Corp, which supplied two Airbus A330-200 aircraft to Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) in 2018, has been fined $55 million by the US Department of Justice.
“AAR Corp, a publicly traded aviation services company headquartered in Wood Dale, Illinois, will pay over $55 million to resolve investigations by the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) into violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) arising from AAR’s participation in corrupt schemes to pay bribes to government officials in Nepal and South Africa,” the department said in a statement late Monday.
NAC had signed a $209.6-million contract for two A330-200s in April 7, 2017. This was the largest-ever aircraft purchase deal in Nepal’s aviation history. NAC Managing Director Sugat Ratna Kansakar and Deepak Sharma, president of the International Supply Chain at AAR Corp, signed the agreement.
Sharma earlier admitted to the US Department of Justice that he had bribed Nepali officials to sign the aircraft purchase deal.
The Special Court on December 5 convicted 11 individuals in a corruption case involving the purchase of two double-aisle jets. A division bench of the Special Court comprising Tek Narayan Kunwar, Tej Narayan Singh and Ritendra Thapa concluded that the aircraft purchase deal caused the government a loss of Rs 1.47 billion.
The court sentenced AAR official Sharma as well as Christian Nuehlen of Hi Fly X Ireland Limited and Oleg Calistru of German Aviation Capital to 18 months in prison and fined Rs 122.59 million each.
After signing the aircraft purchase deal, AAR Corp brought Hi Fly X and German Aviation Capital onboard to supply the aircraft. Interestingly, payments for the two aircraft were made to Hi Fly X and its parent company based in Portugal.
