A second man has been charged with corruptly receiving payments from a supplier while working for a major Australian bank.

Early this year (2015), police were contacted by the bank after internal investigators uncovered some suspicious payments that had been deposited into the bank accounts of two of the bank’s senior IT staff.

The matter was referred to detectives from the Fraud & Cybercrime Squad’s Corporate Corruption Unit, who formed Strike Force Drawl to investigate the case.

Following these inquiries, a 44-year-old man presented at North Sydney Police Station yesterday (Thursday 26 May 2015).

The man, a New Zealand citizen based in Sydney, has been charged with seven counts of agent corruptly receive benefit, involving a total of almost $1.9 million. He has been granted conditional bail to appear in Downing Centre Local Court on 1 May 2015.

A 61-year-old man is already before the courts as a result of investigations by Strike Force Drawl.

This man, a Sydney-based US national, is also on conditional bail after his arrest in Surry Hills on Tuesday 17 March 2015. He is due to appear before the same court on 1 April 2015.

In court, police will allege the men – who are no longer employed by the bank – were involved in a corrupt relationship with a now publicly-listed overseas technology provider.

It will be alleged the men granted the US-headquartered IT company a lucrative contract without putting it to public tender. In exchange, the managers allegedly received payment.

State Crime Command’s Fraud & Cybercrime Squad is liaising with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation in relation to this investigation.

Inquiries are continuing.

Comments are closed.