A high-ranking Australian embassy
official had a secret affair with a Vietnamese spy colonel accused of receiving
up to $20 million in suspected brides from a subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of
Australia.
Senior trade commissioner Elizabeth
Masamune - who held a top- secret Australian security clearance - met Colonel
Anh Ngoc Luong, a top official in Vietnam's state intelligence network, in the
early 2000s when she was based in Hanoi.
At the time, Colonel Luong was
working with RBA firm Securency to win a huge plastic banknote contract with
Vietnam's central bank.
Last year, Colonel Luong was accused
in court by Australian prosecutors and federal police of receiving up to $20
million in suspected bribes from Securency.
Diplomatic sources have confirmed
that while Ms Masamune was encouraging Securency to make substantial payments
to Colonel Luong in return for his help winning contracts, she was also
intimately involved with him.
Ms Masamune did not declare the
details of her relationship with Colonel Luong to the Department of Foreign
Affairs and Trade or Australia's intelligence agencies while she was posted to
the communist country.
As Australia's most senior trade
official in Vietnam, Ms Masamune would have regularly received classified
Australian government briefings.
When contacted last night by
Fairfax, Ms Masamune made no comment.
A senior diplomatic source said that
Colonel Luong is listed by Australian agencies as a colonel in Vietnam's spy
agency, the Ministry of Public Security. He is known to be part of the inner
circle of the Vietnamese Prime Minister, Nguyen Tan Dung, and a ''bagman'' for
top Vietnamese officials.
It is understood that when Securency
executives complained about the large amount of money it was paying to Colonel
Luong, Ms Masamune told them it was the price of doing business in Vietnam.
The revelation of the affair will
reignite pressure on Prime Minister Julia Gillard to set up a broad inquiry
into the extent to which senior Austrade and RBA officials supported or covered
up bribery and engaged in other improper behaviour.
Deputy Opposition Leader Julie
Bishop yesterday said she would seek answers from Trade Minister Craig Emerson
about when he became aware of matters involving Ms Masamune and whether he had
made any referral to federal police or other security agencies.
''Given the seriousness of the
allegations, it's vital the government disclose its full knowledge,'' she said.
Ms Masamune is one of several
Australian officials who directly or indirectly facilitated Securency's allegedly
improper dealings, which prosecutors have claimed involved the payment of
multi-million dollar bribes in Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Austrade assisted Securency and Note
Printing Australia, another RBA subsidiary, in 49 countries between 1996 and
2009.
Note Printing Australia is alleged
to have bribed officials in Malaysia, Indonesia and Nepal.
Between 1999 and 2009 - and with
Austrade's knowledge and sometimes support - Securency hired a Vietnamese spy
colonel, a Malaysian arms dealer and a convicted South African criminal.
These men acted as the RBA firm's
overseas agents as part of a scheme police now allege was a front for paying
bribes.
Fairfax first reported last December
documents released under the Freedom of Information Act detailing how Ms
Masamune, now Austrade's Sydney-based general manager for East Asian Growth
Markets, knew in 2001 of Securency's financial dealings with Colonel Luong.
Internal Austrade documents indicate
senior trade officials knew of Colonel Luong's links to Vietnam's Ministry of
Public Security as early as 1998.
Despite Australia introducing laws
in 1999 banning payments to foreign officials, no one in Austrade warned
Securency that it might be acting illegally by paying Colonel Luong.
In January 2001, Ms Masamune told
Securency that she would ''stay in touch with Anh [Colonel Luong] and follow up
on the letters he needs to write to you regarding other financial issues''.
Two months later, Securency sent an
email to Ms Masamune stating: ''In the case of Vietnam, we are doing more than
we have for any other country, especially in terms of financial commitment,
which we are regarding as an investment.''
Ms Masamune was also copied in on
emails that outlined Colonel Luong's March 2001 plan to travel to Australia for
''discussion and signing amendment concerning'' the payments he was receiving
from Securency.
Ms Masamune also told Securency she
would lobby the Immigration Department to issue Colonel Luong with a
''super-quick'' visa. She also helped facilitate a trip to America taken by
Colonel Luong and other Vietnamese officials and paid for by Securency.
Ms Gillard and Treasurer Wayne Swan
have resisted calls for a broad inquiry into the bribery scandal, including
those made by Ms Bishop and fellow Liberal MP Tony Smith, independent Nick
Xenophon, the Greens and the anti-corruption watchdog, Transparency
International.
The federal police inquiry into the
scandal was sparked by revelations by Fairfax in 2009, but it has been limited
to investigating and charging with bribery offences former executives of
Securency and Note Printing Australia.
Committal hearings for alleged
bribery offences committed by up to eight former Securency and NPA executives
begin today in Melbourne. The AFP has not investigated the role of government
agencies in the scandal, despite evidence Australian officials were aware of or
involved in some of Securency and NPA's overseas dealings.
Another former Austrade official,
Asia regional director David Twine, also worked closely with Securency,
government documents show. Mr Twine met Indian arms dealer Vipin Khanna in 2009
in relation to Securency's affairs, despite the company having dismissed Mr
Khanna as its agent after he was adversely implicated in the Iraqi oil-for-food
scandal. Mr Twine left Austrade in October last year.
The Australian Securities and
Investments Commission has offered no public explanation for its recent refusal
to conduct even a preliminary investigation into the scandal in the face of
strong evidence showing how serving and former RBA officials may have engaged
in a major bribery cover-up in 2007.
Serving
and former RBA officials overseeing Securency and Note Printing Australia were
warned by whistleblowers in 2007 of bribery, but failed to alert police.
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