Polymer note scam investigators dig deeper
By Terence Fernandez, The Sun
The charging of former Bank Negara assistant governor Datuk Mohamad Daud Dol Moin for allegedly receiving kickbacks to help procure a polymer note printing contract is only the tip of the iceberg.
Investigators close to the case said authorities are also probing the involvement of a government official more senior than Mohamad Daud, as well as the spouse of another senior government official over the contract to produce RM5 polymer bank notes by Note Printing Australia (NPA) Ltd, a subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).
“There may be bigger fish involved and we are working on getting them,” said a source.
“The investigations are not over as this involves the Australian authorities.
“The Australians’ investigations span over a decade and covers at least five countries,” the source added.
Last Friday, Mohamad Daud, 58, claimed trial at the Sessions Court here to two counts of accepting bribes amounting to RM100,000 from businessman Abdul Kayum Syed Ahmad to help procure the contract which will see RBA paid RM95 million by Bank Negara to produce the notes.
Mohamad Daud was accused of receiving two bribes of RM50,000 each from Abdul Kayum at a café here on Dec 1, 2004, and Feb 16, 2005; while Abdul Kayum claimed trial at the Shah Alam sessions court on the same day to two counts of bribing Mohamad Daud.
Both were charged under Section 11(a) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act and face up to 20 years jail and a fine of five times the bribe amount, for each charge.
Abdul Kayum, 62, who was arrested on July 5 last year, was the centre of investigations by both the Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP). It is illegal in Australia to use middlemen to procure government contracts.
The Age and theSun had cooperated to expose the polymer note scandal last year, where senior Malaysian and Australian officials were under probe for graft in securing the polymer note printing deal.
Meanwhile, also on Friday, six former employees of RBA subsidiaries – NPA and Securency International were charged at the Sydney Magistrates Court with “bribing Asian officials to secure contracts to print their currencies”.
They are former Securency chief executive Myles Curtis; former NPA chief executive John Leckenby; former Securency chief financial officer Mitchell Anderson; former NPA chief financial officer Peter Hutchinson; former Securency sales executive Ron Marchant and former NPA sales executive Barry Brady.
An RBA audit in 2010 has discovered that Securency paid A$47.5 million (RM140 million) in commissions to its network of agents from 2003 to 2009 to secure deals in Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.
Securency prints polymer banknotes for 30 countries and was responsible for the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games RM50 commemorative note.
The company itself has also been charged with three counts of conspiracy to influence foreign officials.
While the kickbacks to Malaysian and Indonesian officials were in the form of cash, a senior bank official in Vietnam allegedly received a bribe in the form of a university scholarship to secure a banknote contract.
The Australian bankers were also accused of paying middlemen to bribe officials in Nigeria and Paraguay to secure similar contracts.
Australian prosecutors said it will be argued that Securency and NPA had negotiated with an agent who claimed to have high-level political connections to lobby the Malaysian government and Bank Negara to adopt the polymer bank notes.
Payments, it is claimed, were made to accounts in tax havens in Seychelles and Switzerland – contrary to Australian banking rules.
It will also be heard that the agent acted as a broker for a Pakistani air-to-surface bomb-making plant suspected of playing a key role in that country’s nuclear weapons programme.
Bank Negara meanwhile had issued several statements insisting it does not use third parties to award contracts.
“NPA appointed their own agent to market their services. At no time has Bank Negara Malaysia paid any commissions to third parties for its currency printing,” it said.
