KUALA LUMPUR, July 1 — A joint Malaysia-Australia swoop on a bribery scandal to secure bank note supply contracts has seen eight people arrested today including former Bank Negara assistant governor Datuk Mohamad Daud Dol Moin.
Australian federal police also arrested and charged two currency printing firms and six of their former senior staff with bribing foreign officials early this morning.
Both Australian police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) began investigating the case in 2009.
Last year, the MACC detained three individuals linked to the supply of RM5 polymer notes.
They were arrested following a report that Melbourne-based Securency International had offered bribes to officials in Malaysia.
All three, including a businessman, were charged with being paid RM11.3 million to secure the contract from Bank Negara and to ensure that the government of Malaysia opted for polymer notes.
Securency, based in Craigieburn, north of Melbourne, is half-owned by the Reserve Bank of Australia, the nation's central bank.
A recent report in Australian newspaper The Age said that Securency had hired a company chaired by the brother of Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein to help it win banknote contracts in Malaysia in 2009 as it could “offer it access to, and influence over, Malaysia’s top politicians”.
But the company, Liberal Technology Sdn Bhd, said that Datuk Haris Onn Hussein, who is also Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s cousin, had sold his shares in 2006.
The report noted however that Securency has not won any banknote contracts in Malaysia since its last major one in 2004 and said that it is not suggesting that Najib or Hishammuddin are involved with Securency’s deals.
Securency has previously secured contracts to print RM50 notes in conjunction with the Commonwealth Games in 1998 and the RM5 polymer notes in 2004.
