AUSSIE BANK BRIBERY PROBE MOVES TO MALAYSIA

MELBOURNE, May 26 (Bernama) -- Corruption investigations have begun in
Britain, Indonesia and Malaysia into alleged bribery by the Reserve Bank of
Australia's (RBA) currency printing subsidiaries.

Details of the investigations came after the RBA Tuesday released a
statement saying it "condemns corrupt behaviour" and took recent revelations
about its subsidiaries' alleged willingness to pay bribes and supply prostitutes
to foreign officials "very seriously", The Age newspaper reported.

Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Tony Negus told a Senate
committee Tuesday that he had 20 investigators in several countries working on
the probe into alleged corruption by Securency International, a firm half-owned
by the RBA, which exports polymer banknotes.

Securency and its sister company, Note Printing Australia, are under
scrutiny for allegedly paying more than US$50 million to middlemen in several
countries after they were awarded note printing and supply contracts by foreign
central banks, the newspaper said.

The Age said Malaysia's Anti-Corruption Commission was helping the AFP trace
what happened to the A$4 million Securency paid its Malaysian agent Abdul Kayum
Syed Ahmad after winning a 2004 currency printing contract.

AFP agents are to go to Kuala Lumpur to work with anti-corruption
investigators.

Negus said Britain's Serious Fraud Office was involved in the Securency
investigation as some of the company's top executives and well-paid middlemen
were based in London.

Indonesia's Corruption Eradication Commission has for at least two years
been investigating deals involving Jakarta businessman Radius Christanto - who
the RBA firms hired to help win contracts.

Negus revealed the Australian Crime Commission had been involved in the case
and admitted the AFP "could have done more" to act on an initial complaint from
a Securency employee in 2008.

The AFP probe did not begin until a year later after The Age exposed
concerns about Securency's dealings in Africa and Asia.
-- BERNAMA


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