Nauru President David Adiang, a predecessor and other individuals have been accused in the Senate of corruptly siphoning millions of dollars of Australian taxpayers’ money to fund the island’s mysterious offshore processing regime.
The Senate has been told that Adeyang was suspected of “corruption and money laundering” after a previously unreleased report by Australia’s financial intelligence agency, Austrac, found “large amounts and rapid movements of the value of money”.
Greens senator David Shoebridge read parts of the unpublished Austrac report into Hansard in the Senate on Tuesday night. He alleged that the Albany government had signed a $2.5 billion deal with Adiang to deport more than 350 people from the NZYQ Group to the small Pacific nation, despite the agency knowing about suspicions of corruption and money laundering against him.
The NZYQ group is a group of approximately 350 non-citizens who have had visas canceled on character grounds, but who cannot be returned to their home countries, primarily because they face persecution.
Adeang visited Canberra last week for a series of meetings with government ministers, including the ministers of foreign and home affairs.
A report by the Australian government’s financial intelligence agency alleges suspicious transfers of millions of dollars were reported by financial institutions in 2020 when Adeang was a member of parliament. The report also details the suspicious activity of Nauru’s then-President, now Foreign Minister, and Police Minister Lionel Nzima.
“The Suspicious Case Report submitted by the customer service agency of the Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Limited in Nauru reports suspicious financial transactions by the resident of Nauru (then Angemia), his family and associates,” Shoebridge told the Senate while reading the Austrac report. “These transactions include the movement of funds between personal and business accounts, transactions on behalf of others and activity indicative of money laundering and corruption.
“These suspicious transactions amounted to more than $2m in combined credits and more than $1m in combined debits in Nauru over the nine-month period from January to September 2020.
“The President of Nauru, Lionel Angimia, First Lady Ingrid Angimia, the President’s brother, David Angimia, and Member of Parliament, David Adieng, have been linked to alleged suspicious activity.”
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The Austrac report said another “suspicious case report” from September 2020 related to the rapid transfer of large amounts of money and the value of money by David Adiang, raising suspicions of corruption and money laundering.
Shoebridge said reports of the suspected case indicated that Adeang had received money from a company called 1402 LRC Car Rentals and Construction, a company linked to Engima’s wife. The company held a sub-contract with a Brisbane firm, Construct International, which was contracted by the Australian Government to run Australia’s offshore processing regime and its detention center on Nauru.
The Austrac report highlights several transactions identified by the banks as allegedly being carried out by Adiang, including: 15 Osco payments, three of which were to Engima-linked 1402 LRC Car Rental and Construction, totaling $113,797; 462 transactions involving construction and manufacturing reference payments totaling $248,888; Withdrawals from 140 ATMs total $68,840; and a $700 withdrawal from a branch.
The Austrac report also states: “(Ediang) was investigated in 2015 by the Australian Federal Police for alleged bribery in relation to phosphate mining in Nauru.”
Shoebridge told the Senate that Australia’s “cruel and corrupt offshore detention arrangement with Nauru must be ended”.
“I want to say it clearly, the Australian government knew all along that the current Nauruan president and key members of his government are seriously corrupt, and yet they signed a $2.5 billion deal with him,” Shoebridge alleged in the Senate on Tuesday night.
“Corruption follows brutality and it thrives in secrecy, and that’s what the Nauru deal and offshore detention are all about. We have to stop these crimes.”
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Shoebridge said payments to LRC Car Rental and Construction were made through the government’s prime contractor, Construct International, between 2017 and 2022. Despite numerous controversies and exposure of persistent mistreatment of refugees and asylum seekers, CanStruct earned over $1.8 billion from the extension of offshore processing contracts with the Home Department.
Guardian Australia contacted CanStruct with a series of questions about alleged corrupt payments. CanStruct, which is no longer operational, appears to have not responded.
The Guardian also asked Adiang’s office, the Nauruan government and the Nauruan Embassy in Canberra a number of questions about the corruption allegations, but has not yet received a response.
A spokesperson for the Home Affairs Minister said: “The Government takes advice from our security, intelligence and law enforcement agencies, not the Greens political party.”
Following the Austrac reports, the Albany government appointed former defense chief Denis Richardson to review corruption allegations in Nauru in 2023. Investigating a number of contracts and sub-contracts, they found that some contractors suspected of drug trafficking and arms trafficking were awarded offshore contracts worth millions of dollars, but concluded that the Australian Government had “no choice but to contract with these companies” due to the high-risk environment. Offshore Processing.
Guardian Australia asked Austrac several questions about the allegations made by Shoebridge but has not yet received a response.
Australia has come under increasing criticism for its secrecy over its dealings with its former colony Nauru. Nauru itself has no free press and does not allow independent journalists into the country.
The Australian government has refused to disclose details of a $2.5 billion deal it signed with Nauru to resettle members of the NZYQ Group, as well as details of its offshore processing contract with a US private prison operator worth almost three-quarters of a billion dollars.
The government also declined to say how much it is paying Papua New Guinea to house asylum seekers and refugees formerly detained on Manus Island, which is part of PNG. Previous governments have refused to release details of offshore custody contracts, saying their disclosure would damage Australia’s international relations, as well as keeping secret the Australia-Nauru Security Partnership Memorandum of Understanding signed nearly a decade ago.
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