Former Vietnamese governor suspended over corruption scandal

Prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung has suspended Le Duc Thuy, the former State Bank of Vietnam governor, from his role as head of Vietnam's National Financial Supervisory Council following his implication in a bribery scandal.

The move came after it was revealed in the Australian press that money paid by Securency, a polymer banknote maker, to a Vietnamese businessman implicated in the graft scandal surrounding the company, allegedly benefited the former governor.

The Age, an Australian newspaper, claimed that a fund was established with some part of A$15 million ($14.86 million) that Securency paid in commissions to Ahn Ngoc Luong, a Vietnamese businessman it used as a middleman to win polymer contracts. The fund was then apparently used to pay the UK tuition fees for Thuy's son's university education.

It was during Thuy's run as governor between December 1999 to July 2007 that the country shifted from paper currency to polymer.

Earlier this month, Securency and Note Printing Australia, both Australian banknote makers previously owned by the Reserve Bank of Australia, were charged by the Australian Federal Police with bribery of foreign public officials in Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia.