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Posted: 04 Oct 2011 10:48 PM PDT

2011/10/05
By Hariz Mohd
news@nst.com.my

KUALA LUMPUR: Police have busted an international theft syndicate comprising Latin Americans that has been preying on bank customers around the city for the past three months.

Two of the syndicate members were detained near a bank in Jalan Ipoh here last Friday, when they were about to execute their plan on a victim.

City CID chief Datuk Ku Chin Wah said further investigations then led to the arrest of three other men in Puchong, and police are looking for another 10, including two women.

"This syndicate operates by stationing their female members, who sometimes wear tudung, in the banks to identify prospective victims.

"The others will then place a special spike made of hollow metal rod under the victim's vehicle rear tyre.

"When the victims drove their cars, the spike will puncture the tires before one of its members acted like a good samaritan and pointed it out to the victims," he told reporters at Tun Razak police station here today.

He said when the victims stopped and were focusing on changing their tires, the syndicate members will sneak around and take the money that the victims kept in their vehicle.

Ku said the syndicate was responsible for at least five cases around the city since the past three months, and did not rule out that they might have also operated in other states.

"The five cases involved losses amounting up to RM600,000, and from records of car rental in other states, they might also be responsible for other cases there.

"Police also found that the syndicate members might have conducted similar crime in other countries including Hong Kong, Singapore, and Korea," he said.

"However, we are still trying to identify their true nationality, as the passports they used here were fake," he added.

Australia’s RBA officials concealed corruption evidence report

Posted: 04 Oct 2011 07:35 PM PDT

CANBERRA: Senior Australian central bank officials helped conceal evidence of corruption at two bank subsidiaries accused of bribery to help win overseas contracts to print banknotes, the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper alleged on Wednesday.

Top Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) officials suppressed damaging information between 2007 and 2008 about payment of secret commissions to middlemen hired by Reserve firms Note Printing Australia (NPA) and Securency to win bank note contracts in Nepal and Malaysia, the report said.

The RBA has a half-share in Securency International, which is being investigated by Australian police, Britain's Serious Fraud Office and Malaysia's Anti-Corruption Commission, prompting calls from some Australian lawmakers for a judicial investigation so far rejected by the government.

"The government will not be running a commentary on these matters while they are still under investigation by the appropriate authorities and there are court proceedings pending," a spokesman for Treasurer Wayne Swan said.

RBA Deputy Governor Ric Battellino, a former deputy governor, Graeme Thompson, and former NPA boss Chris Ogilvy were among officials who knew of the concerns, the Herald said.

Evidence of the cover-ups was contained in dozens of internal documents from the bank and the bank note firms, including many seized by police after executing search warrants, it said, without naming sources.

Police in July charged Note Printing Australia and Securency over alleged payments to officials in Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam between 1999 and 2005 following a two-year inquiry.

The RBA and its partner in the Securency joint venture, Innovia Films, are looking for a buyer for the firm, and this year valued its half share at A$54 million.

RBA Governor Glenn Stevens said in July that six men charged no longer had any connection with the companies or the RBA, and nobody at the central bank had been accused of any wrongdoing.

The RBA denied the latest allegations in a statement and said on Wednesday they were based on "inaccurate and incomplete facts", although details could not be addressed as they were the subject of court proceedings.

"The Australian Federal Police has stated on 1 July that no RBA board members have been involved in any wrongdoing and that the charges against the companies are not a reflection of board members being complicit in or having knowledge of any illegal activity," the RBA statement said.

The Australian Greens party, which holds the balance of power in parliament's upper house, said Stevens and other RBA officials could be asked to appear before lawmakers to answer questions over the new allegations.

"Twice this year Reserve Bank officials, including Glenn Stevens, have told the parliament economics committee that officials really didn't know about any of this at the time. The problems is that the revelations coming out today throw that into question," Greens MP Adam Bandt told Australian radio. -- Reuters

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Selasa, 4 Oktober 2011

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