Colombian former beauty queen Debbie Castañeda has been implicated in a scandal involving alleged illegal Italian business bonuses, reported Italian and Colombian news sources Thursday.
The scandal was revealed after Naples’ prosecutors had ordered a series of wiretaps to investigate the possible extortion committed by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi who was known to hire luxurious prostitutes for his private sex parties. Italian media had accused Castañeda of partaking in Berlusconi’s erotic gatherings as a “bunga-bunga” girl– the term used by the Italian media when referring to Berlusconi’s sex parties. Castañeda denied the charges.
The Burlusconi wiretap investigation revealed that the leaders of Finmeccanica, the second largest industrial group in the Italy, paid kickbacks to officials of foreign countries to win lucrative contracts.
“All the characters involved, including leaders and agents of the Finmeccanica group, have spoken several times with important political figures and military forces for foreign countries and said explicitly that it is necessary to pay them to take over contracts for weapons, and equipment of defense and security,” Italian prosecutors recorded.
The Colombian beauty has worked as a contract mediator in Colombia on behalf of Finmeccanica since 2009. The Italian government owns 30% of the Italian business giant, which does roughly $22.2 billion in business per year with a staff of 65,000 employees.
Along with Castañeda, Alejandro Agag, the son-in-law of former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, is also involved in the scandal. Allegedly, Debbie Castañeda played a key role in the system of corruption organized by Finmeccanica and hoped to receive a $8.3 million fee for a $831 million contract in Colombia, which apparently did not happen due to Agag’s fault.
However, Agag has allegedly denied that Colombia signed a contract with Finmeccanica and would not clarify whether the Italian company represented the business negotiations in Colombia.