Australian Police Say Appropriate Steps Taken in BHP Bribery Case
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) said Monday they have taken the necessary steps to investigate claims that the world’s largest mining company, BHP Billiton, bribed officials in Cambodia and played down reports that it had mishandled one the country’s largest cases in corporate corruption. … “The AFP received a referral on BHP Billiton in May 2010. This referral was assessed with the knowledge that United States authorities were investigating the matter. In consultation with U.S. authorities, in February 2013, the AFP undertook to investigate Australian nationals identified during the U.S. investigation,” Julie Hope, a spokesperson for the AFP, said in an email from Canberra. The U.S. Securities Exchange Commission has been investigating BHP Billiton on allegations of corruption since May 2009. … In March, diplomatic cables released by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade revealed that both Prime Minister Hun Sen and the Australian Embassy in Phnom Penh had played central roles in negotiating the multimillion-dollar deal with BHP Billiton in 2006. In 2007, Water Resources Minister Lim Kean Hor told the National Assembly that Mr. Hun Sen, while on a visit to Australia in 2006 to sign off on a deal for a bauxite mine in Mondolkiri province, called him to say BHP Billiton had agreed to pay $2.5 million in “tea money,” which was allegedly used to set up a social development fund to improve the wellbeing of Cambodians. But in 2009, BHP Billiton shut down the Mondolkiri mine and provided the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission with evidence of possible corruption. …
