Securency exec spared jail over false accounts
A former executive with a subsidiary of the Reserve Bank has avoided jail for his part in an alleged foreign bribery scandal.
David Ellery, 56, was the chief financial officer and secretary of the company Securency, which is alleged to have bribed foreign officials in Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia to win currency contracts.
Securency is jointly owned by the Reserve Bank and a British company, Innovia Films BVBA, and makes substances used in the manufacture of banknotes.
Ellery pleaded guilty in the Victorian Supreme Court to falsifying accounting of nearly $80,000 for a commission to a Malaysian broker.
He signed off on the payment as representing marketing, meeting, materials, hospitality and travel expenses even though the amount was worked out as a commission and not a reimbursement of expenses.
"You were well aware, when you forwarded it with a request for payment, that the invoice was false, in that no such marketing expenses had been incurred," said Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth in her judgment.
"Your knowledge that what you were doing was dishonest at that time is evidenced by the steps you subsequently took to try to conceal what had actually occurred."
However, Justice Hollingworth also found that, unlike most cases of false accounting, Ellery's offence was not motivated by personal financial gain.
"The primary motive behind your offending was to assist your employer in its commercial activities, by assisting it to gain the benefit of future contracts," she said.
Her Honour found that Ellery did initially challenge the Malaysian agent's entitlement to payment by Securency but that he had succumbed to the requests and assurances of other senior employees.
"I also accept that you were acting within the culture which seems to have developed within Securency, whereby staff were discouraged from examining too closely the use of, and payment arrangements for, overseas agents," Justice Hollingworth added.
"Secrecy, and a denial of responsibility for wrongdoing, also seem to have been part of the corporate culture at Securency at that time."
The court found Ellery's breach was in the mid-range of false accounting offences.
However it took into account the loss of his reputation and career as a senior accountant and corporate officer and Ellery's current relatively lowly accounting job in a developing country away from his family who remain in Australia.
Justice Hollingworth also took into account Ellery's early guilty plea and agreement to give evidence in relation to broader allegations of corruption.
Ellery was given a six-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.
Justice Hollingworth noted she would have sentenced Ellery to one year's imprisonment with a non-parole period of nine months if not for his guilty plea.
The maximum available penalty for the offence is 10 years in jail.