On Wednesday September 30, at the Presidential Villa in Abuja,
President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua smiled and beamed as he launched
the polymer currency notes for the country. But far away in Australia,
crack detectives were reviewing case files in Canberra, making sense
of which, and how many, Nigerian officials shared about 750 million Naira
in bribe money from the Australian polymer company, Securency, to secure
the contract to supply the polymer notes to the Nigerian government

Nigeria Is Blessed.

You mean the world in general?

RICHARD BAKER AND NICK MCKENZIE
October 2, 2009
A RESERVE Bank of Australia company is under Federal Police investigation for allegedly bribing Nigerian officials to win a bank-note deal in the most serious development yet in the cash-for-contracts scandal.

The bribery probe centres on a series of multimillion-dollar payments by RBA firm Securency into offshore bank accounts of two British-based businessmen.

Benoy Berry and Mike Harding boast high-level political contacts in Britain and Africa.

The Age can reveal that among those contacts are senior British politician Lord David Steel and his adviser Atul Vadher, who were involved with Dr Berry and Mr Harding in another venture, Global Secure Currency Ltd, about the same time the pair were promoting Securency in Africa.

Lord Steel is a co-founder and former leader of Britain's Liberal Democrats political party, inaugural presiding officer of the Scottish Parliament, a life peer of the House of Lords and vice-president of the Royal African Society.

His long-time assistant, Dr Vadher, has also been an adviser to at least two African governments and contested the 1999 European Parliament elections for the Liberal Democrats. The Age is not suggesting any wrong-doing by Lord Steel or Dr Vadher.

Securency's payments to Dr Berry and Mr Harding, coupled with their links to a senior British politician and his adviser, are likely to attract the interest of Britain's Serious Fraud Office.

An AFP taskforce has been investigating Securency since May for possible breaches of Australia's criminal code, which outlaws payments to foreign officials.

The probe is focused on large commission payments by Securency to politically connected foreign middlemen, often into tax haven accounts.

An investigation by The Age into Securency's Nigeria activities can reveal that the RBA firm paid millions of dollars into a tax haven bank account belonging to Dr Berry. The total figure is not known.

In 2006, Dr Berry's security technology company Contec Global was investigated by Uganda's corruption watchdog after the country's internal security agency accused it of paying a $1.8 million bribe to a minister. The bribery allegation could not be proved, but a report found the Ugandan minister had been improperly "fronting" for Dr Berry's firm because he stood to benefit from the deal. Dr Berry has not responded to inquiries from The Age.

An overseas-based source aware of Securency's dealings in Africa said the firm paid more than $1 million into accounts tied to two companies effectively overseen by Mr Harding, 72, including one called called JH Marketing Africa 2000.

Mr Harding, associated with the British Conservative Party, lived in Africa for 20 years working for British company Unilever.

The Age has learned that Mr Harding directs some of his earnings into a company account in a secretive tax-free business zone at Sharjah airport in the United Arab Emirates.

UAE officials said they could only disclose who owned the business if they were given a "judicial order". But The Age linked the UAE entity that received the Securency payment to Mr Harding by matching its phone number to a telephone listing in the Englishmen's home town of Bracknell.

Mr Harding, who initially denied any association with Securency when questioned by The Age earlier this year, said last week he could not discuss the payment from Securency to his UAE company because it had become "a legal matter".

Dr Berry and Mr Harding were paid to help Securency, which is half-owned by the RBA and British firm Innovia Films, promote its polymer currency across Africa and win a 2006 contract from the Central Bank of Nigeria.

Mr Harding said the Nigeria negotiations were handled by the company's Africa manager, Peter Chapman, and Dr Berry. Mr Chapman recently resigned and is believed to be in Brazil.

"I had nothing to do with the supply contract to Nigeria," Mr Harding said. "It was all handled by Mr Chapman and Mr Berry. I became involved after that was agreed."

Despite Mr Harding's attempts to distance himself from Dr Berry, corporate records show the pair to be the only shareholders in a British company called Global Secure Currency Ltd, registered in 2004.
Corporate records show Lord Steel and Dr Vadher were Global Secure Currency Ltd directors between September 2005 and August 2006.

Mr Harding denied any involvement in the shell company, saying he did not pay for the shares allotted to him. "I won't have anything to do with shell companies . . . they can be used to launder money," he said.

Lord Steel and Dr Vadher were also directors of Dr Berry's Contec Global company during the same period. Corporate records show the pair remain small shareholders in Contec Global.

Dr Berry, who is also Burundi's honorary consul to India, was last month threatened with prosecution by the Central Bank of Nigeria for being among the country's worst debtors.

Lord Steel told The Age this week his business association with Dr Berry was shortlived and that neither he nor his assistant Dr Vadher received any directors' fees or attended board meetings.

"We met Benoy Berry when we were in Uganda and he was angling for a contract there," Lord Steel said in a statement.

"He seemed a pleasant and successful guy and he asked us to join his board, which we agreed to do. We were never shareholders.

"However, we soon became disillusioned and decided to disengage . . . I am surprised to learn that we were even registered as directors, because our association with him lasted only a few months."

It is not the first time Lord Steel has been involved with controversial companies and businessmen.

In the 1990s, he was a director of Heritage Oil & Gas, which was run by British businessman Tony Buckingham. Mr Buckingham also directed controversial mercenary soldier company, Executive Outcomes, which was involved in conflicts in Sierra-Leone and Angola in 1995.

Lord Steel is also involved with controversial Anglo-Iraqi businessman Nadhmi Auchi, who heads finance and arms trading company General Mediterranean Holdings. Lord Steel has been a GMH director for many years.

Auchi was convicted of fraud in France in 2003 over his role in the takeover oil company Elf. Auchi is challenging his conviction and two-year suspended jail sentence. The RBA continues to refuse to discuss Securency's overseas activities.

Got a tip? Email investigations@theage.com.

The Age last week revealed Mr Harding and another British-based businessman, Benoy Berry, were paid several million dollars by Securency to market the company's polymer notes in Africa and to win a currency printing deal in Nigeria. Much of the money was paid into tax haven bank accounts.

The payments to the politically connected businessmen are at the centre of an AFP investigation into Securency for allegedly bribing Nigerian officials to win a 2007 contract.

Asked if he was aware of any bribes being paid to Nigerian officials, Mr Harding said: "It is the nature of the beast. I'm not ignorant of what goes on. As soon as I learned of the troubles with Securency I pulled right back."

So much for the rebranding process/project.

Aswerigad, Nigeria is bleeped up!