Two Sydney males have been charged with bribery of overseas authorities officers following a long-running investigation by Australian Federal Police.
The pair, aged 67 and 71, from the big Australian-based engineering building agency SMEC Worldwide, have been allegedly making an attempt to attain contracts for 2 main infrastructure tasks in Sri Lanka value $14 million.
Between 2009 and 2016, the boys allegedly conspired to rearrange the cost of greater than $304,000 to bribe overseas authorities officers, the AFP mentioned in an announcement.
The AFP has not dominated out additional arrests.
Footage of the arrests confirmed one man being led to an AFP automotive in a residential neighbourhood and the opposite police-escorted out of Sydney Airport.
The AFP labored alongside the FBI, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and police in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh all through an investigation described as "protracted".
Australian Securities and Investments Fee (ASIC) and Australian Commerce and Funding Fee (Austrade) additionally assisted the operation, the AFP mentioned.
In line with its web site, SMEC Worldwide has places of work all through Australia and operations throughout Africa and the Asia-Pacific area.
The Putney man, 67, and Newtown man, 71, have been arrested on September 14 and now face doable 10-year jail sentences.
Every has been charged with one depend of conspiring to bribe a overseas public official.
Each are set to look in Downing Centre Native Courtroom at the moment.
SMEC advised 9news.com.au it's totally co-operating with the AFP investigation.
"SMEC has zero tolerance for bribery and corruption all through its international operations and implements anti-bribery insurance policies and procedures throughout its companies to handle its bribery and corruption dangers," a spokesperson mentioned.
The corporate mentioned it could not give additional remark, because the matter is now earlier than court docket.
Detective Superintendent Helen Schneider mentioned combatting corruption was a key precedence for the AFP.
"Corruption undermines honest competitors and might have disastrous penalties for creating economies, international anti-poverty and improvement efforts," she mentioned.
Investigations are persevering with.
It seems like the kind of place you'd whack in your journey bucket record