A relationship gone sour between the company that handled Nigeria's change from paper bank notes to polymer and one of its agents has provided fresh evidence indicating that top officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria received bribes to award the contract to Securency International Pty Limited, an Australian company.

On September 29, 2009, one day before the polymer bank notes were officially launched in Nigeria, Benoy Berry, a UK-based Indian businessman with key interests in the Nigerian security printing industry, and who served as agent to Securency in its bid to secure the Nigerian bank note contract, sent a scathing letter to Myles Curtis, then Managing Director of Securency.

In the letter, he alleged a breach of contract and accused the bank note company of bribing CBN officials. Mr Berry sent the letter ‘by post and email', copying other Securency officials: the Director of International Sales, Hugh Brown; the former Director of Sales for Africa Peter Chapman, and former Company Secretary, John Ellerey, in the mail. Mr Curtis was last Thursday arrested by the Australian police for his role in the Securency bribery scandal across several countries.

The Currency Restructuring Programme in the Chukwuma Soludo-led CBN culminated in the introduction of polymer bank notes for all of Nigeria's lower denominations, the N5, N10, N20 and N50 notes in 2009.

Securency Pty Ltd, a sub-company of the Reserve Bank of Australia, won the contract to supply the patented polymer substrate. Three days after the notes were officially launched in the country, NEXT broke the news in the Nigerian media of a huge bribery scheme that heralded the introduction of the new bank notes.

In search of the Nigerian bribe-takers

In line with the information in this new document, international sources, who spoke in confidence with NEXT, believe that the British Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has already made huge progress in the investigations to uncover the Nigerian bribe-takers even as the Australian authorities last Thursday made arrests of key RBA ex-officials linked to the bribery scandal in Nigeria and other countries.

"I expect that the Nigerian corruption should lead to criminal charges later in the year. The UK's Serious Fraud Office has taken over the Nigerian inquiry from the Australian federal police and are making good progress," our source said.

No Nigerian security agency has made any progress in the case. Both the Nigeria police and the CBN claim that they have no knowledge of any progress in the bribery investigations.

"I called the people that are supposed to be investigating but nobody seems to know anything about case. I don't know much about this case," Yemi Ajayi, the spokesman of the Nigeria Police told NEXT over the weekend.

A spokesman at the CBN spoke in similar vein. "I don't know anything about this case. The official spokesman of the CBN is not in the country. He will be back on Tuesday. Maybe you should call him when he comes back," said the official who asked not be named.

Taking bribes in place of technology transfer

Mr Berry, who sounded bitter at his principals, accused Securency of sidestepping his company, Global Secure Currency Ltd which he said was formed for the purpose of propagating Securency's polymer notes, and levelled several allegations against the company's top official. He pointedly accused Securency of paying bribes to CBN officials using several channels including funnelling "illegitimate payments to proxy accounts in Dubai". Mr Berry claimed the cash inducements were to avoid carrying on with a previous agreement to establish a polymer-based mint in Nigeria.

Mr Berry claimed that he had helped Securency secure the Nigerian contract, which as at 2009 had led to the supply of about 1.9 billion pieces of polymer notes. In return, he expected to be paid a commission amounting to 20 percent of the gross of sales value. Mr Berry further claimed that his Nigerian business was suffering as a result of the CBN-Securency alliance.

"It is very apparent by now that the principled objectives of transferring technology to developing nations is mere lip service, the truncation of which requires your sidelining us so that the polymer- based mint which we planned to establish in Nigeria would not see the light of day," Mr Berry said.

Mr Berry's allegations went a notch further when he claimed knowledge of the bribe takers.

"Your involvements with other Nigerian public officials are also well known. We have also observed that some beneficiaries of your favours within the Central Bank of Nigeria have begun to maliciously target our interests in Nigeria," he said, while threatening to expose the "corrupting malfeasance" of Securency.

He did not accuse anybody Mr Berry's attorney, Wole Adebayo, who spoke with NEXT over the weekend, however claimed that his client has at no time accused any one of offering or taking bribes. Insisting that he had access to all of Mr Berry's letters, Mr Adebayo said that his client at no time mentioned the CBN in his letters.

"I have not seen the letter that you are referring to but I have access to all his letters and in none of the letters that he wrote did he mention the CBN. He is not aware that anyone was bribed and he never accused anyone of bribery," Mr Adebayo, who said he was touring in the UK said over the telephone.

"He never said so. If you have a letter, which you said he wrote, you have to show it to me," Mr Adebayo said.