Updated: 7/1/2011
Two banknote firms linked to Australia's central bank and six of their former employees were charged Friday over the bribing of Asian officials to secure contracts to print their currencies.
As arrests were being made in Australia, a former top Malaysian central banker and a businessman were charged with corruption over their involvement with the polymer note companies accused of providing kickbacks.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) said the charges related to currency companies Securency International and Note Printing Australia (NPA) allegedly bribing officials in Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.
"The AFP will allege that during the period 1999-2005, senior managers from Securency and NPA utilised international sales agents to bribe foreign public officials in order to secure banknote contracts," police said.
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) said while the firms involved were its partly or fully owned subsidiaries, no one at the central bank had been accused of wrongdoing.
"The Reserve Bank deeply regrets that the governance arrangements and processes in the companies at that time were not able to prevent or detect the alleged behaviour," governor Glenn Stevens said.
Securency, which is partly owned by the RBA and produces polymer banknotes used in more than 30 countries, said it had been charged with three counts of conspiracy to influence foreign officials.
The company, which requested Australian police investigate allegations of bribery in May 2009, said it was cooperating fully with authorities.
NPA, a wholly owned RBA subsidiary responsible for running the printing works where Australia's banknotes are printed, made no separate comment.
Australian police, who have worked with Britain's Serious Fraud Office, Malaysian authorities and Indonesian National Police on the case, said the investigation which has stretched as far as Nigeria was ongoing.
They said in Indonesia a foreign official allegedly received a bribe to ensure a joint venture banknote contract for Securency and NPA, while in Vietnam an official allegedly took a bribe, in the form of a university scholarship, to secure a banknote contract on behalf of Securency.
The Australian charges are the first under foreign bribery laws introduced in 1999 and came as Malaysia laid related charges against two men.
Anti-corruption investigations director Mustafar Ali said former Bank Negara Malaysia assistant governor Mohamad Daud Dol Moin allegedly took kickbacks totalling 100,000 ringgit ($33,000).
Mohamad Daud allegedly took two bribes from businessman Abdul Kayum Syed Ahmad in 2004 over a 95 million ringgit contract to print five ringgit polymer banknotes that was awarded to NPA, Mustafar said.
Abdul Kayum was also charged for bribing Mohamad Daud, he said.
"We have worked closely with the Australian police in carrying out investigations and in prosecuting the two individuals over this corruption case," Mustafar said.
If found guilty, the men, who are on bail, could be jailed for up to 20 years and fined five times the bribe amount.
Police said the six Australians charged, aged between 50 and 66, had been chief executives, chief financial officers or sales agents for Securency or NPA. All were bailed by a Melbourne court Friday.
If convicted, they face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to Aus$1.1 million ($1.2 million) while the charges against the Australian companies, carry a maximum fine of Aus$330,000 per offence.
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