money for nothin' and your chicks for free

No, it's not Mark knoefller and Sting singing, it's what the company Securency International, 50% owned by the reserve bank of Australia, sings to the central bank officials in asian and african countries when they woo them to print their polymer banknotes. Was on Four Corners last night, REPEATED TONIGHT at 11.35pm EST

Inquiry urged into bank bribery deal over polymer banknotes

AAP
May 24, 2010

THE federal government and the opposition are under pressure to back an inquiry into allegations of bribery involving an arm of the Reserve Bank. Securency International, the Melbourne-based maker of polymer banknotes, is alleged to have supplied prostitutes and paid kickbacks to win contracts.

It is alleged up to $45 million has been doled out in a bid to convince central banking officials from Asian and African nations to replace their paper notes.

The scandal surrounding the use of global commission agents is potentially Australia's most serious case of corruption since the Australian Wheat Board paid kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq.

A federal police witness has told an investigation by ABC TV's Four Corners that a middleman hired by Securency to win contracts from foreign governments told him he had planned to bribe a central bank governor from an Asian country.

The witness, who was a senior Securency employee, revealed that a senior manager told him to arrange an Asian prostitute for a deputy governor of a foreign central bank, who was visiting Melbourne.

Australian Greens leader Bob Brown has called on the federal government and the opposition to reverse their previous aversion to holding an inquiry into Securency.

"I'm saying to the prime minister and the leader of the opposition, `You have an obligation to Australians to establish a parliamentary inquiry and get to the bottom of the chain of command," Senator Brown told reporters.

"These are extraordinarily serious allegations."


Senator Brown said he had repeatedly tried to get parliamentary scrutiny of the allegations, only to have Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Opposition Leader Tony Abbott stymie his move to have Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens appear before a committee.

The Reserve Bank half owns and supervises Securency, with London-based manufacturer Innovia Films the other shareholder.

Malaysian Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim also wants answers.

"The Australian government and the central bank has to offer an explanation why it chose to pay such commissions," he told ABC Television.

The Australian Federal Police are investigating Securency for allegedly bribing government officials in Malaysia, Vietnam and Nigeria.

The firm, established in 1996, has issued polymer banknotes in 29 countries.

Lyrics by Sting and Mark Knoeffler

Money For Nothin'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2CfvVUE22E&feature=related


I want my MTV (X 16) Now look at them yo-yo's that's the way you do it You play the guitar on the MTV That ain't workin' that's the way you do it Money for nothin' and your chicks for free Now that ain't workin' that's the way you do it Lemme tell ya them guys ain't dumb Maybe get a blister on your little finger Maybe get a blister on your thumb We gotta install microwave ovens Custom kitchen deliveries We gotta move these refrigerators We gotta move these color TV's