Australian currency firm hired tainted Indian middleman: Report
August 15th, 2010 - 10:45 pm ICT by IANSSydney, Aug 15 (IANS) A Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) currency firm engaged an Indian middleman implicated in the Iraq oil-for-food scam, a revelation that can change the course of inquiry into a bribery scandal in the country.
The agent, Aditya Khanna, engaged by the banknote firm ‘Securency’ - which is the subject of Australia’s biggest foreign bribery investigation - is related to senior politician Natwar Singh, and has been raided by Indian police in connection with suspect arms deals, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Sunday.
Securency hired Khanna, a businessman, and his Delhi-based firm DSSI Group to help get its plastic banknotes circulating in India.
A DSSI Group executive last week confirmed his company’s link to Securency, the report said. The RBA declined to comment.
Like the wheat marketing company AWB Ltd of Australia, Khanna was named in the UN Volcker inquiry in 2006 as having profited from oil-for-food programme contracts that included kickbacks to Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq.
The Volcker inquiry sparked a royal commission in Australia into AWB’s role as the biggest rorter of the UN programme.
The revelation of Khanna’s role with the RBA firm is likely to embarrass the Australian and Indian governments and their central banks, especially after Securency recently won a contract from the Reserve Bank of India to supply one billion polymer banknotes for a trial, the report said.
- UN ready to remove 19 Indian vendors from blacklist - Feb 22, 2011
- Oil-for-food scam: Court rejects Natwar Singh's plea (Lead) - Oct 05, 2010
- Natwar Singh seeks papers linked to his clean chit in scam - Jul 28, 2010
- Oil-for-food scam: Supreme Court dismisses Natwar Singh's plea - Oct 05, 2010
- Oz central bank embroiled in sex and banknote bribe deals - May 24, 2010
- Australian Q4 consumer price index unchanged - Jan 25, 2012
- Natwar Singh's plea opposed in apex court - Jul 29, 2010
- Inflation data key to rate cut: Australian central bank - Oct 18, 2011
- Reserve Bank of Australia cuts cash rate - Dec 06, 2011
- Key papers sought on Reliance Petroleum role in Iraqi oil deal - Feb 25, 2009
- Australian services sector expands in January - Feb 03, 2012
- Australia cuts cash rate to boost growth - May 01, 2012
- Australian inflation marginally up in April - Apr 30, 2012
- Australian consumer sentiment falls - Mar 14, 2012
- Australian Reserve Bank leaves cash rate unchanged - Feb 07, 2012
Tags: australian currency, bank of australia, bank of india, banknote, bribery scandal, central banks, indian governments, indian police, kickbacks, marketing company, middleman, morning herald, one billion, plastic banknotes, polymer banknotes, reserve bank of australia, reserve bank of australia rba, reserve bank of india, sydney morning herald, volcker