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David John Ellery, Former company Secretary for Securency in 2012. Photo: Arsineh Houspian
London: An Australian Reserve Bank subsidiary gave the go-ahead for a regional manager to bribe a Nigerian official to secure millions of dollars in new business, a UK court has been told.
Peter Chapman, the former director of business development in Africa for Melbourne-based polymer banknote firm Securency International, went on trial this week on corruption charges over the bribes.
A subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of Australia, Securency, has been at the centre of a scandal over alleged bribes for banknote printing contracts around the world. Photo: Sze Kai Chen
He arranged for hundreds of thousands of dollars to be transferred to an official at the Nigerian Mint through a web of offshore companies and accounts, the prosecution told London's Crown Court on Tuesday.
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Securency's head office "was prepared to endorse the idea of a bribe if that meant they got the orders", the prosecutor said.
Mr Chapman arranged six bribes to the Nigerian Mint official in 2007, 2008 and 2009, the Crown Court at Southwark was told. He has pleaded not guilty to six counts of corruption.
Polymer notes printed by Securency. Photo: Michael Howard
At that time Securency was negotiating with Nigeria's Mint and central bank over multi-million-dollar deals for the resissue of the country's 'naira' bank notes in polymer form.
Mr Chapman, a 54 year-old businessman, was arrested by British police on arrival at Heathrow airport from Brazil in April 2015. He is currently at Wandsworth prison in London.
Mr Chapman made, or arranged for the payments to the official – who cannot be named due to a court order in the UK.
"Each payment was an inducement or a reward for [the Nigerian Mint official] doing or having done something in relation to the business of Securency – which was to sell polymer so it could be used for the production of banknotes," prosecutor John McGuinness QC told the court.
"The prosecution says the payments were corrupt, they were effectively bribes to facilitate Securency getting orders."
Mr Chapman received big commissions on Securency's sales in Nigeria, Mr McGuinness said. In 2008 he received an extra AU$117,000, then in 2009 he made more than AU$600,000 in commissions on new orders and sales, on top of his salary and office and car allowances.
Each of the bribes passed through a company called Swingaxle, incorporated in the Seychelles in 2004 on Mr Chapman's instructions and of which he was the beneficial owner.
In 2005 he told a bank he set up Swingaxle for "various side projects", Mr McGuinness said, including oil contracts with "a Russian counterpart".
The first alleged bribe, of US$27,000, was transferred to a Canadian company of which the Nigerian official was the beneficial owner.
The Canadian company was registered as providing "general contracting and janitorial service", Mr McGuinness said, and the bribe was described to the bank as "relating to a consultancy invoice".
"It's difficult to understand how (the company) could have legitimately provided consultancy services to Swingaxle, (which) was set up to do with oil deals," Mr McGuinness said. "It is a bribe."
He said Mr Chapman's defence was that the money was repaying a cash loan, but "if it was the repayment of a loan in the way he describes, why the reference to a consultancy invoice?"
Internal Securency emails revealed heavy pressure from Mr Chapman's managers to increase polymer sales, including one that said "I would ask you all to focus on those essential markets to see if there are any ways in which we can bring forward orders… creative thinking is required and will be rewarded."
Mr McGuinness said the payment to the Canadian company was the "start of a process" that led to a decision in Nigeria to switch from paper to polymer notes in a number of denominations. There was "no other credible explanation" for the payment to a company that ostensibly provided janitorial services.
The second alleged bribe, of £5479.63, was paid out of Swingaxle's Seychelles account in early 2008 and ended up in the Nigerian official's London bank account, Mr McGuinness said. This time Mr Chapman's defence was that he was reimbursing the man for "tipping drivers, buying meals and tipping for meals" on visits to Nigeria.
However there was no evidence Mr Chapman had asked Securency to reimburse the money, which was another example of a corrupt payment, Mr McGuinness said.
The third alleged bribe, of £40,000 in January 2009, was moved through a Seychelles company called SPT Ltd, which Mr Chapman helped create and which acted as Securency's sole agent in Nigeria. The payment was invoiced to Securency as paying for cars, drivers and personal security personnel for staff in Nigeria – however the money again ended up with the Nigerian Mint official, described variously as a "loan account payment" and a "spare parts consignment".
"The evidence before you shows it's a bribe," Mr McGuinness said.
Mr McGuinness said Mr Chapman met the man he was bribing several times, and reported the encounters to his superiors at Securency.Â
He said another man, former senior Securency executive David Ellery, would give evidence that there was pressure from the board of Securency in Australia to secure more orders for polymer.
"He remembers a meeting at head office in Australia which Mr Chapman attended, and Mr Chapman vented his frustration at the pressure he was under to secure sales," he said.
"(He) said if a further order was to be obtained there would be a cost involved."
Mr Ellery understood that reference to a 'cost' to be a bribe.
"But to secure these orders, Securency were prepared to endorse the idea of a bribe, if that meant they got their orders… they agreed an invoice would be sent to Securency as a pretext to cover the bribe," Mr McGuinness said.
At head office, the bribe was discussed and referred to as "assisting in setting a positive mood", Mr McGuinness said.
Around the same time, Mr Chapman was pushing his contact to confirm that three new denominations of Nigerian currency would be issued on polymer notes, the court was told.
Mr McGuinness said the defendant did not dispute that the payments were made, but will claim there was no corrupt connection with the business of Securency.
The trial at Southwark Crown Court before Judge Michael Grieve QC continues on Wednesday.