A former manager of a subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) alleged that a central bank account was set up in the U.S. for the payment of bribes which is a violation of anti-corruption laws in the United States.

Raimon Kukk, former finance manager of Note Printing Australia (NPA), said over $4.5 million were paid using the RBA account as "commissions" to an Indonesian agent he identified a Radius Christanto. He provided on Wednesday a police statement to the Melbourne Magistrates Court to back his claim.

Mr Kukk said in his statement that he sent a fax to the International Settlements Department of RBA on Aug 4, 1999 instructing the payment of commission to the Indonesian agent.

In previous statements, Mr Kukk said that the chief executive of NPA, John Leckenby, was instructed to be more aggressive in marketing the agency's international polymer banknotes and polymer technology to reduce the cost of RBA's production of Australian banknotes.

To implement that, Mr Leckenby was ordered to engage agents and set up regional offices in France, Malaysia and the U.S. Besides Mr. Christanto, Mr Kukk said payments from the RBA account were made to Herman Joseph Susmanto, the former currency chief of the Indonesian Central Bank, for helping NPA executives secure or retain juicy contracts for the supply of polymer banknotes.

He identified the RBA account, managed by its Payments Settlements Department, as that with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The Magistrates Court continues on Thursday the hearing on the RBA account.

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