Allegations that a company half owned by the Reserve Bank bribed foreign government officials with multi-million-dollar commissions are being investigated by the Australian Federal Police. Today it has been reported a senior Vietnamese official received more than $5 million in so-called commission payments from the company, Securency. According to The Age newspaper, payments to the Vietnamese official and his company, wired into overseas bank accounts, totalled more than $12 million. Now investigators want to know who knew what, and when.' Posted The allegations are the most serious developments yet in the corruption scandal engulfing the Reserve Bank. (ABC News: Michael Janda, file photo) Allegations that a company half owned by the Reserve Bank bribed foreign government officials with multi-million-dollar commissions are being investigated by the Australian Federal Police. Today it has been reported a senior Vietnamese official received more than $5 million in so-called commission payments from the company, Securency. According to The Age newspaper, payments to the Vietnamese official and his company, wired into overseas bank accounts, totalled more than $12 million. Now investigators want to know who knew what, and when. The allegations are the most serious developments yet in the corruption scandal engulfing the Reserve Bank. Securency manufactures the polymer material which is used in Australian bank notes. The patented polymer formula is now used in banknotes in 27 other countries, including Vietnam. It switched from paper-based banknotes to polymer in 2002. Hanoi businessman Anh Ngoc Luong played a major role in the deal. Securency hired him because of his high-level government connections. It is understood he and his company worked for Vietnam's Ministry of Public Security. According to the Age, Securency paid him and his company, CFTD, more than $12 million, some of which was wired to offshore bank accounts in Switzerland. Under Australia's federal bribery laws, it is illegal for Australian companies to pay foreign officials or government-controlled entities to gain a business advantage. If it can be proven that Securency executives knew or should have known that Mr Luong worked on behalf of the Vietnamese Government, they may face criminal charges, which carry a 10-year jail sentence. The allegations also raise questions about the conduct of the Reserve Bank. Some of its officials sit on the Securency board and oversee its activities. Then there is the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and other Australian agencies which work with Securency around the world. Richard Broinowski is Australia's former ambassador to Vietnam. He says the scandal raises serious questions for the Government. "I think the main thing is that there should have been an awareness of what was going on," he said. "If the story is true then it would imply knowledge on the part of the RBA, therefore knowledge surely on the part of senior bureaucrats in Canberra too - including the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. "Australia is a signatory to anti-corruption international laws and regulations, and it's something that we shouldn't we doing. "I see a parallel between this and the AWB scandal, which still hasn't been properly involved and the people who've been responsible for it haven't been brought to any kind of account. "I have been quoted in The Age as saying it's [Vietnam's Ministry of Public Security] an odious agency, I mean that only to the extent that yes, it's got responsibility for public security and in a country like Vietnam there isn't a great deal of transparency," he said. "But I really should say that it's not so much the moral turpitude or otherwise of that agency. Any government agency in Vietnam would be equally culpable and Australian officials should equally know who is involved." Mr Luong is listed as a director of his company's Australian operations based in Frankston, south-east of Melbourne. Two years ago, Securency executives claimed the company's role was limited to translating documents, arranging meetings and airport pickups.RBA linked to bribery scandal
Updated 
Saturday, 31 October 2009
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