Banknote scandal widens
THE Reserve Bank bribery scandal has spread to the Australian government's trade agency, with documents revealing Austrade met a notorious Indian arms dealer hired by Securency and knew of payments to a Vietnamese spy chief to secure contracts.
Austrade documents obtained by the Herald raise serious questions about whether some of its top officials knew about alleged multimillion-dollar bribes being paid by RBA subsidiaries Securency and Note Printing Australia across Asia.
Austrade's senior trade envoy in Vietnam, Elizabeth Masamune, was told by Securency in 2001 that a firm controlled by Anh Ngoc Luong, a colonel in Vietnam's Ministry of Public Security, would act as a ''post box'' between the RBA firm and Vietnam's central bank. Ms Masamune worked closely with Colonel Luong, who the Australian Federal Police alleged in July had received up to $20 million in suspected bribes from Securency.
A secret May 2007 deal arranged by Mr Twine for Austrade to perform due diligence services on Securency's foreign agents and to "provide a watching brief on specific organisations important to Securency (such as agents, customer governments and other 'influencers')''. A confidential Austrade memo states that both special ''assignments'' would be recorded in a ''discrete agreement'' and not documented in the agency's official contract with Securency.
The Herald has learnt Mr Twine left Austrade in October after his position was abolished in a restructure.
In a statement last night, Austrade said it was unable to answer specific questions because of the ongoing police investigation and court cases.
Austrade ''has fully co-operated with the investigation … there are no allegations of impropriety against Austrade and no Austrade employee has been charged in relation to the AFP bribery investigation,'' it said.
Austrade assisted Securency International and NPA in 49 countries between 1996 and 2009. Two former senior trade commissioners, Paul Martins and Gustavo Ascenzo, joined Securency as sales executives. Mr Martins later returned to Austrade.
The federal government has blocked moves for an independent inquiry into corrupt dealings by the RBA subsidiaries and Austrade's role in their affairs since the Herald exposed bribery concerns in May 2009.
Documents released under freedom-of-information legislation show Ms Masamune, now Austrade's general manager for east Asian markets, knew in 2001 that Securency had financial dealings with Colonel Luong, who had been hired to help persuade Vietnam's central bank to switch its entire banknote issue from paper to plastic supplied by the RBA firm.
Despite Australia introducing foreign bribery laws in 1999, no one in Austrade warned Securency that it might be acting illegally by making payments to Colonel Luong and his firm, CFTD.
Internal Austrade documents indicate senior trade officials knew of Colonel Luong's connections to Vietnam's Ministry of Public Security as early as 1998. In 2007 and 2008, Austrade formally warned the RBA and Securency that Colonel Luong was a senior officer in the intelligence and security agency.
The financial aspect of Securency's dealings in Vietnam is referred to in emails between Ms Masamune and former banknote executive Cliff Gerathy.
In January 2001 Ms Masamune advised Mr Gerathy that she would ''stay in touch with Anh [Colonel Luong] and follow-up on the letters he needs to write to you regarding other financial issues''.
Two months later, Mr Gerathy sent an email to Ms Masamune stating: ''In the case of Vietnam, we are doing more than we have for any other country, especially in terms of financial commitment, which we are regarding as an investment.''
Securency and NPA, along with nine former executives, including Mr Gerathy, have been charged with bribing officials in Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Nepal in order to win banknote contracts.
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