RBA's note-printing subsidiaries hid $21M bribery fines behind suppression orders

Securency, the Reserve Bank of Australia subsidiary that made the plastic base for world banknotes, and Note Printing Australia, which prints Australia)s banknotes and passports, pleaded guilty to offering bribes to foreign officials between 1999 and 2004 — Securency in Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam, and NPA in Indonesia, Malaysia and Nepal, targeting note-issuing authorities and central banks.

The courts handed down record criminal fines of more than $21 million in 2011 and 2012 — but suppression orders kept them secret for seven years. They only became public in November 2018, after former banknote executive Christian Boillot pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe Malaysian officials and long-running non-publication orders were lifted.

The scandal reached the top of the subsidiaries: CEO Myles Curtis pleaded guilty to conspiring to bribe officials in Malaysia and Indonesia plus false accounting; CFO John Ellery admitted cooking the books over a Malaysian agent)s commission; managers Clifford Gerathy and Indonesian agent Radius Christanto also pleaded guilty — all receiving suspended sentences. The RBA sold its 50 per cent Securency stake in 2013, and the company now operates as CCL Secure.

Record criminal fines of more than $21 million, suspended sentences for the CEO, CFO and managers, and the RBA selling its Securency stake in 2013

Selling banknote systems to foreign note-issuing authorities through kickbacks made corruption the sales model, not an anomaly.

False accounting was used to disguise agent commissions, drawing the CFO and managers into criminal conspiracy.

The parent's position — subsidiaries of Australia's central bank, supplier to other central banks — made the conduct a national reputation problem.

Suppression orders delayed public reckoning, letting the fines and convictions land years after the conduct and the guilty pleas.

When the product is trust — banknotes, passports, central-bank relationships — commissions paid under the table are not a sales strategy, they are the crime itself.

The RBA said the guilty pleas showed the boards accepted responsibility and avoided a lengthy court battle, with governor Philip Lowe stating the bank 'strongly condemns corrupt and unethical behaviour). Securency, sold by the RBA in 2013, continues as CCL Secure; NPA still prints Australia)s banknotes and passports.