Nauru’s President David Adeang has been accused in the Australian Senate of corruptly siphoning millions of dollars of Australian taxpayer money intended for the island’s offshore processing regime. Greens Senator David Shoebridge read sections of an unreleased Austrac report into Hansard on Tuesday night, alleging that the Albanese government knew of suspicions against Adeang yet still signed a $2.5bn deal to deport more than 350 people to Nauru.
The Austrac report, Australia’s financial intelligence agency, suspected Adeang of “corruption and money laundering” after detecting a “rapid movement of large volume and value of funds”. It detailed suspicious transfers reported by financial institutions in 2020, when Adeang was a member of parliament, and also flagged suspicious activity by then-President Lionel Aingimea, now foreign minister.
Shoebridge told the Senate that suspicious matter reports submitted by Bendigo and Adelaide Bank’s customer service agency in Nauru revealed transactions involving Adeang and Aingimea. These included movements of funds between personal and business accounts, transactions on behalf of others, and activity indicative of money laundering and corruption, totalling over $2m in credits and over $1m in debits over nine months in 2020.
The report highlighted that Adeang received funds from 1402 LRC Car Rentals and Construction, a company linked to Aingimea’s wife, which held subcontracts with Canstruct International, a Brisbane firm contracted by the Australian government to run the offshore processing regime. Shoebridge alleged that Australia’s “cruel and corrupt offshore detention arrangements with Nauru must be torn down”.
