Australia: International bribery charges laid in Securency scandal

Nick Mackenzie and Richard Baker report for the Sydney Morning Herald:

Australia's first foreign bribery prosecution will accuse two Reserve Bank currency firms and six of their former senior managers of funnelling multi-million-dollar bribes to high-ranking government officials in Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam to win bank-note deals.

Police in Australia, Asia and Europe expect to lay further criminal charges and expose corrupt foreign politicians after yesterday charging with bribery Securency and Note Printing Australia, plastic-banknote design and printing firms that are respectively half and fully owned and overseen by the Reserve.

An international corruption taskforce led by the federal police is still working to uncover up to $25 million more in suspected bribes paid by the Reserve firms in Asia and Africa since 1999 and as recently as 18 months ago. The federal police inquiry began after a report in the Herald in May 2009 revealed Securency's multimillion-dollar payments to shady middlemen.

The Greens leader, Bob Brown, has called for the corporate watchdog to examine the conduct of the former boards of both companies - including former Reserve bosses and several corporate heavyweights - and Austrade, the federal trade agency, is likely to come under scrutiny over its involvement.

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