From the AFR:
The man who blew the whistle on the Reserve Bank of Australia’s bribery scandal claims that recently retired deputy governor Ric Battellino told him never to mention the bribery allegations as they shook hands at his farewell lunch.
The former chief financial officer at the RBA’s subsidiary Note Printing Australia, Brian Hood, said that he “tried every avenue [he] possibly could [to raise his concerns] but just couldn’t get traction [because] attitudes were very dismissive”.
Two years before the central bank called in police to investigate NPA and Securency, Mr Hood met with Mr Battellino to raise concerns over bribery claims, which he subsequently set out in a 2007 memo to the RBA.
“He [Mr Battelino] attended my [September 2008] farewell lunch, he shook my hand and made that comment to me, not to mention the matter,” Mr Hood told a parliamentary committee for law enforcement integrity in Sydney.
