This comes after Australian newspaper The Age claimed that Securency, a leading supplier of plastic dollar bills, had hired Datuk Haris Onn Hussein, who is Home Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein’s brother and the cousin of Datuk Seri Najib Razak, in an effort to win banknote contracts.
Liberal Technology Sdn Bhd said in a response however that Haris ceased to be a shareholder of the company when he sold his stake of 180,000 shares on September 4 2006 to a Shazal Yusuf although Companies Commission records still lists Haris as a shareholder.
It also said that in its last annual return on June 30 last year, it had listed Hafidzuddin Che Din and Mohamed Hanif Che Din as the sole shareholders of the company with 500,000 shares each but the Companies Commission had yet to update its records.
In the June 6 article ‘Securency money trail nudges Malaysia’s political royalty’, The Age claimed that Securency had hired Haris Onn Hussein in 2009 with the hope that he would offer it access and influence over Malaysia’s top politicians and also said that in 2006, the Malaysian finance ministry told cigarette and alcohol manufacturers that they would need to buy security labels provided by Liberal Technology to legally sell their products.
The report noted however that Securency has not won any banknote contracts in Malaysia since its last major one in 2004 and added that it is not suggesting that Najib or Hishamuddin are involved with Sucerency’s deals.
The Age said that Securency, which is 50 per cent owned by the Reserve Bank of Australia, has been under investigation by the Australian Federal Police and the British Serious Fraud Office for allegedly bribing public officials in Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Nigeria to win banknote supply contracts.
Securency’s managing director, Myles Curtis, and chief financial officer, John Ellery, were forced out of the company in March last year while its deputy chairman, English businessman Bill Lowther, resigned in October following his arrest by the Serious Fraud Office.
Liberal Technology said that it strongly refutes “all claims relating to any illegal activities or wrongdoings” implied in The Age article.
The Age report comes at a sensitive time as Malaysia and Australia are about to seal a deal on a refugee swap and the Melbourne paper said that Australia’s international relations could be harmed if foreign officials allegedly linked to Sucerency’s bribes are named.
The Najib administration has also been pushing the message of reform and transparency in an effort to improve Malaysia’s business climate and boost the country’s competitiveness.
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