In a recent statement by The Malay Mail, Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) deputy chief commissioner Datuk Shukri Abdull indicated that there would be no fresh charges related to Securency case. MACC have completed their investigations and have charged the former senior central bank officer and a businessmen. In a report by Australian newspaper The Age yesterday, lawyers forNote Printing Australia (NPA) and Securency entered guilty pleas at the Melbourne Magistrate’s Court to three charges each of bribing or conspiring to bribe foreign officials to obtain a business advantage.
I had been following Securency case in Malaysia since June 2010. Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) fully owns banknote printer Note Printing Australia (NPA) and half of Securency, which manufactures plastic banknotes. NPA printed the RM5 polymer note, as well as the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games RM50 commemorative notes. Here are some of the story that had been posted in my blog.
Sex bribe for currency printing contracts
Australia The Age Newspaper reported, Bank Negara Malaysia official probably involve in sex bribe for currency printing contracts. The allegations were made on ABC television by a key witness in a long-running Federal Police investigation into the international operations of Securency, which provides the polymer base for high security paper currency. Responding a query by Starbiz in relation to Bernama report on the investigation in Britain, Indonesia and Malaysia for alleged bribery by the currency-printing subsidiaries of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). Securency and Note Printing Australia (NPA) are the currency-printing subsidiaries. Read More.
3 arrested in Malaysia for Securency case
Malaysian's anti-corruption agency said it has arrested three individuals over an Australian banknote supply contract scandal, as an international probe into the case deepened. Malaysia's Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) said the trio were arrested last month after claims emerged that the Melbourne-based Securency International offered bribes to officials in Malaysia. They were arrested in Putrajaya when they went there to give their statements. Read More.
Securency hired Malaysia political family
A news by Sydney Morning Herald reported that Securency hired Malaysia political family. The Age has learned that Securency signed Kuala Lumpur firm Liberal Technology as its Malaysian agent in 2009. The biggest individual shareholder in Liberal Technology is businessman Haris Onn Hussein. Haris Onn Hussein is well connected; his cousin is the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Najib Razak, and his brother is Home Affairs Minister Hishammuddin Tun Hussein. Read More.
Businessman Haris Onn Hussein, brother of Malaysia's Home Affairs Minister yesterday said he was not a shareholder of Kuala Lumpur company when it was hired two years ago by Securency. He said he already sold his shares in Liberal Technology in September 2006 and had no dealings with Securency, which engaged the Malaysian firm as its agent in 2009. However, Liberal Technology's official records with Companies Commission of Malaysia had, until yesterday, listed Haris Onn Hussein as owning 180,000 shares. Read More.
Picture by Bernama: Mohamad Daud (centre)
RM5 polymer case involved ex BNM governor
A former Bank Negara Malaysia assistant governor Datuk Mohamad Daud Dol Moin, 58, has claimed trial at a Sessions Court in Kuala Lumpur yesterday, for accepting RM100,000 bribe, to secure a contract for printing a RM5 polymer notes by Note Printing Australia Ltd. On the same day, businessman Abdul Kayum, has claimed trial at the Sessions Court in Shah Alam for bribing Mohamad Daud. The offences were allegedly committed at the EON Bank, Jalan Taipan in Subang Jaya on Nov 24, 2004 and Feb 15, 2005. Abdul Kayum was arrested on July 5 last year. Read More.
Securency tried to bribe Pak Lah
The Reserve Bank of Australia’s banknote firms, Securency and Note Printing Australia (NPA) are suspected of attempting to bribe Malaysia former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in order to get his help to win a $31 million currency contract for Malaysia RM5 polymer notes. The contracts negotiation occurred around 2003, the year he became prime minister and finance minister. Tun Abdullah served as Malaysia prime minister until 2009. Read More.
The middlemen, Abdul Kayum Syed Ahmad also involved in a 2004 case of black market link on supplying a nuclear weapon to Pakistan. Securency and NPA engaged Abdul Kayum in the late 1990s to lobby Malaysian government and banking officials to adopt the Australian-made polymer banknotes. Abdul Kayum's former business associates had told The Age that the man claimed to have high-level political connections in Malaysia that he could use to help strike deals for foreign companies. The Age disclosed that Abdul Kayum's Kuala Lumpur investment company Aksavest is alleged to have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in commissions from Securency and NPA. By late 2007, the Reserve Bank had ordered NPA to sever ties with Abdul Kayum and its other overseas middlemen due to integrity concerns.
Abdul Kayum is charged under Section 11(b) of the Anti Corruption Act 1997 with paying RM 50,000 through a middleman to Mohamad Daud to aid in obtaining a contract linked to the application for a project for printing of the RM5 polymer bank note by Note Australia Limited. He was also charged with a second offence under Section 11(b) of the Anti Corruption Act for paying Mohamad Daud another RM50,000 through the same middleman at the same place on Feb 15, 2005.
