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I always believed there was a cover up with the Royal Commission and subsequent investigation into the AWB kickbacks to Saddam and now the (ex) AFP officer and head of the investigation has come forward and is taking the AFP to court.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-06-0...6?WT.svl=news0
The head of the Australian Federal Police inquiry into the Australian Wheat Board oil-for-food scandal says he was offered a promotion to shut down the investigation.
Former senior AFP agent Ross Fusca will tell the ABC's 7.30 program tonight that he believed the offer of a promotion was an improper inducement.
The claim forms part of a statement he has lodged with the Federal Court.
The statement also claims the inquiry into the politically sensitive scandal was never given enough resources to do its job, and was shut down prematurely.
The multi-agency taskforce - established in late 2006 - was asked to investigate the findings of the Cole Royal Commission that AWB and several senior company figures had likely broken Australian laws when they paid hundreds of millions of dollars in kickbacks disguised as transport fees to the regime of Saddam Hussein.
Mr Fusca claims an informant to the AFP taskforce indicated that Federal Government officials were aware of the kickbacks.
A 30-year veteran of the AFP, Mr Fusca said he was stunned by the offer he was made during a conversation with an AFP manager in late 2008.
"He said that if I could make the taskforce disappear, I'd be the next coordinator," he has told 7.30.
Asked if he was "effectively asked or told if you wind down the AWB taskforce, you'll get a promotion?" he replied: "That is correct, that is the way I interpreted it."
"I was completely floored by it," he added.
Mr Fusca says the next day another senior AFP officer pressured him to wind up the inquiry early because the taskforce was out of budget.
He has told 7.30 that resourcing had always been a problem.
"Much to my surprise - and I've been in taskforces previously where everything is thrown at it - on this occasion we lacked appropriate accommodation to the point where ASIC were working in one building, the AFP hadn't contributed or allocated very many resources to the taskforce."
After a request for a dozen more staff, he was offered just three, including one who was about to resign.
"Here I was in charge of supposedly the AFP's number one investigation, this was a most serious fraud. We had all these kickbacks being sent to a regime that was horrible and I was being sent an officer that was resigning."
Here I was in charge of supposedly the AFP's number one investigation ... We had all these kickbacks being sent to a regime that was horrible and I was being sent an officer that was resigning.
The taskforce's work was highly political from the beginning, with the Royal Commission discounting claims that government officials knew about the kickbacks.
But the police had intelligence suggesting otherwise.
By 2008 Mr Fusca's career was in decline, and he says his complaints about the taskforce's staffing problems saw him moved to lesser duties.
In 2009, the AFP closed down the inquiry, saying it had fresh legal advice that there was a limited chance a prosecution would succeed.
Mr Fusca is now taking legal action against the AFP in the Federal Court.
For that reason, the AFP says it cannot comment on the case.
The full story will air on ABC1's 7.30 program tonight.
__________________________________________________ ___________
Here's hoping we get a real investigation into this now and the Howard cronies that new about it get named and shamed.
Chook.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-06-0...6?WT.svl=news0
The head of the Australian Federal Police inquiry into the Australian Wheat Board oil-for-food scandal says he was offered a promotion to shut down the investigation.
Former senior AFP agent Ross Fusca will tell the ABC's 7.30 program tonight that he believed the offer of a promotion was an improper inducement.
The claim forms part of a statement he has lodged with the Federal Court.
The statement also claims the inquiry into the politically sensitive scandal was never given enough resources to do its job, and was shut down prematurely.
The multi-agency taskforce - established in late 2006 - was asked to investigate the findings of the Cole Royal Commission that AWB and several senior company figures had likely broken Australian laws when they paid hundreds of millions of dollars in kickbacks disguised as transport fees to the regime of Saddam Hussein.
Mr Fusca claims an informant to the AFP taskforce indicated that Federal Government officials were aware of the kickbacks.
A 30-year veteran of the AFP, Mr Fusca said he was stunned by the offer he was made during a conversation with an AFP manager in late 2008.
"He said that if I could make the taskforce disappear, I'd be the next coordinator," he has told 7.30.
Asked if he was "effectively asked or told if you wind down the AWB taskforce, you'll get a promotion?" he replied: "That is correct, that is the way I interpreted it."
"I was completely floored by it," he added.
Mr Fusca says the next day another senior AFP officer pressured him to wind up the inquiry early because the taskforce was out of budget.
He has told 7.30 that resourcing had always been a problem.
"Much to my surprise - and I've been in taskforces previously where everything is thrown at it - on this occasion we lacked appropriate accommodation to the point where ASIC were working in one building, the AFP hadn't contributed or allocated very many resources to the taskforce."
After a request for a dozen more staff, he was offered just three, including one who was about to resign.
"Here I was in charge of supposedly the AFP's number one investigation, this was a most serious fraud. We had all these kickbacks being sent to a regime that was horrible and I was being sent an officer that was resigning."
Here I was in charge of supposedly the AFP's number one investigation ... We had all these kickbacks being sent to a regime that was horrible and I was being sent an officer that was resigning.
The taskforce's work was highly political from the beginning, with the Royal Commission discounting claims that government officials knew about the kickbacks.
But the police had intelligence suggesting otherwise.
By 2008 Mr Fusca's career was in decline, and he says his complaints about the taskforce's staffing problems saw him moved to lesser duties.
In 2009, the AFP closed down the inquiry, saying it had fresh legal advice that there was a limited chance a prosecution would succeed.
Mr Fusca is now taking legal action against the AFP in the Federal Court.
For that reason, the AFP says it cannot comment on the case.
The full story will air on ABC1's 7.30 program tonight.
__________________________________________________ ___________
Here's hoping we get a real investigation into this now and the Howard cronies that new about it get named and shamed.
Chook.
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