THE Reserve Bank's bank-note firm paid multimillion-dollar commissions to a senior Vietnamese official in an apparent breach of federal bribery laws that carry a 10-year prison sentence.

Anh Ngoc Luong received more than $5 million in so-called commission payments from the bank's firm Securency.

The payments to Mr Luong and CFTD from Securency are believed to total more than $12 million, some of which was sent to accounts in Switzerland.

The Commonwealth criminal code forbids Australian companies paying foreign officials or government-controlled firms to gain a business advantage.

Securency hired Mr Luong because of his government connections, and he has been Securency's chief government liaison in Vietnam for several years.

Since 2002 Mr Luong has played a big role in a deal in which Vietnam switched its currency from paper-based notes to those made with Securency's patented polymer formula.

To read the complete article, see:Concern over bank firm's $5m payment(www.smh.com.au/national/concern-over-bank-
firms-5m-payment-20091029-hnqr.html)

Nigeria's National Assembly is to investigate the country's former central bank governor over allegations he was bribed to award a contract to a company controlled by the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Nigeria's House of Representatives has passed a motion requesting the assembly's banking and justice committees investigate the Central Bank of Nigeria's previous administrators for "brazen cases'' of corruption, money laundering, reckless spending and issuing of non-performing loans.

A resolution read by representative John Halims Agoda and supported by 46 others said: ''The committees are mandated to ascertain the veracity or otherwise of the widely reported claims by the local and international media that a company, Securency, is believed to have paid millions of dollars in bribe money to Nigerian officials to secure the contract to print Nigeria's new banknotes.''

To read the complete article, see:Nigeria to act on RBA bribe claim(www.theage.com.au/national/investigations/
nigeria-to-act-on-rba-bribe-claim-20091022-hbfl.html)