Both are being charged in special anti-graft courts simultaneously with six other individuals and two companies who will also be brought to court in Australia today.
“They are being charged under new provisions in Australia... it is linked to the case in Malaysia,” a source told The Malaysian Insider.
Last year, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) also detained three individuals linked to the supply of RM5 polymer notes from an Australian company.
They were arrested following a report that Melbourne-based Securency International had offered bribes to officials in Malaysia.
Following the news report, 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.
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 Texhnology 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.
The ex-central bank senior officer is alleged to have accepted bribes in 2004 and 2005 to help secure the RM95 million contract for the Australian firm.
