Italian police arrested the head of defence group Finmeccanica yesterday over bribery allegations, adding to a series of corporate scandals shaking Italy less than two weeks before a general election.

Finmeccanica chief executive and chairman Giuseppe Orsi was arrested over bribes allegedly paid to secure the sale of 12 helicopters to India, when he was head of the group’s AgustaWestland unit, a judicial source with direct knowledge of the situation said.

Police searched Orsi’s home and the offices of AgustaWestland close to Milan, a source close to Orsi’s lawyer said. The Milan offices of state-owned Finmeccanica, Italy’s second-biggest corporate employer after Fiat, were also searched, the judicial source said.

The Italian business world has been shaken in recent weeks by a series of corruption cases, notably a derivatives scandal at Italy’s No. 3 lender Banca Monte dei Paschi and a probe into alleged bribery over contracts in Algeria that has hit oil major Eni and its 43-per-cent-owned oil services group Saipem.