SUPPLY-SIDE BRIBERY AND CORRUPTION (ARROW) CRIMINAL LIABILITY
MAR–MAY 2012
AUSTRALIA’S FIRST CRIMINAL PROSECUTION FOR FOREIGN BRIBERY UNDER THE CRIMINAL CODE 1995 (CTH) HAS RESULTED IN DAVID ELLERY, A FORMER CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER (CFO) BEING SENTENCED IN AUGUST 2012 TO SIX MONTHS IN PRISON, WHOLLY SUSPENDED FOR TWO YEARS (R V ELLERY [2012] VSC 349).
Australia’s fi rst criminal prosecution for foreign bribery under the Criminal Code 1995 (Cth) has resulted in David Ellery, a former Chief Financial Offi cer (CFO) being sentenced in August 2012 to six months in prison, wholly suspended for two years (R v Ellery [2012] VSC 349).
Australian courts are starting to refl ect what their US counterparts have been doing for some time – treating white collar or economic crime with increasing seriousness, with imprisonment as the probable consequence. This has been an increasing trend in economic crime cases involving, for example, insider trading and revenue or tax fraud prosecutions. It is now being refl ected in false accounting off ences, often closely associated with allegations of foreign bribery.
Securency prosecution
On 1 July 2011, Securency International Pty Ltd (Securency), Note Printing Australia Pty Ltd (NPA) and senior executives of each company were charged with having engaged in conduct constituting the bribing of foreign offi cials in contravention of the Criminal Code 1995 (Cth). Both companies are subsidiaries of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). The criminal prosecutions are currently before the courts in Victoria.
The criminal indictments are not publicly available, but according to media reports, the alleged conduct involved:
• commercial contracts over nearly a ten year period;
• intermediaries and agents exploiting connections with government offi cials in Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Nepal and possibly Nigeria;
• in Malaysia, the use of an arms broker and a United Malays National Organisation member of parliament and party offi cial to facilitate the securing of a contract to print the 5 Ringgit polymer banknotes;
• in Indonesia, the use of a third party consultant who received up to US$4.9m to secure a contract to print up to 500 million 100,000 Rupiah polymer banknotes;
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