Aussie immigration scam revealed

Twenty six people have been arrested after failing to meet Australian citizenship requirements

By Grant Holloway
CNN.com Correspondent

HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- Hong Kong's anti-corruption agency is investigating more than 100 people it alleges bribed an Australian official for citizenship.

An Australian immigration official is under investigation following the arrest of 29 people in Hong Kong over a citizenship scam.

AUDIO Australian Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock says authorities are on the alert 1MB/96 sec AIFF or WAV sound

The investigation and arrests follow a joint investigation by the Australian Federal Police and Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption.

The Australian official allegedly took bribes from a Hong Kong emigration consultant to grant Australian citizenship to unqualified applicants.

According to ICAC, the emigration consultant and two of his associates were arrested in Hong Kong for allegedly conspiring to offer $520,000 in bribe payments to the immigration official.

In return, the Australian official had allegedly granted Australian citizenship to numerous applicants referred by the emigration consultant, all of whom had failed to meet Australian citizenship requirements.

Most of these applicants, 26 of whom have now also been arrested, were either residents of Hong Kong or mainland China.

Scam not widespread

Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock says passports may be cancelled

Australia's Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock said officials from his department had noticed processing irregularities in relation to the approval of a number of Australian citizenship applications, mainly from Hong Kong residents.

He told CNN that he did not believe the scam was widespread.

"The legal situation is this if people obtained their documentation fraudulently then it is not a valid grant and we would proceed to cancel but each case has to be seen on its merits," he said.

"People may well find that we will be seeking further information and then proceeding to cancel any citizenship grant they have and presumably reclaim the passports. All of those who were granted citizenship in this way have been added to our alert list, so if they were seeking to travel we would be aware of it."

The matter had then been referred by the department's internal investigations area to the Australian Federal Police for joint investigation and in September last year Australian authorities sought assistance from ICAC.

The anti-corruption body arrested the 16 men and 13 women alleging they were among more than 140 unqualified applicants involved in the bribes for passport racket that led to fraudulently gained Australian citizenship between September 1988 and February 2000.

ICAC enquiries later revealed that the Hong Kong emigration consultant had allegedly paid bribes to the Australian former immigration official, which included the payment of travelling expenses incurred by the Australian official and his family in making numerous overseas trips.

Basic requirements not met

The payment of travelling expenses, estimated to be around $26,000, were suspected of being part of a reward for the official to grant Australian citizenship to clients referred by the consultant.

It was revealed that most of the applicants involved had not fulfilled the residence requirement nor did they have the necessary English language skills -- a basic citizenship requirement in Australia.

In some cases, applicants who had never resided in Australia were granted Australian citizenship immediately after they flew into Australia and received an Australian passport within one day.

Most of them left the country shortly afterwards and never returned to Australia. ICAC says the emigration consultant was charging each applicant between $5,000 to $100,000 for the bogus citizenships.

The total amount of money involved in the scam is in the range of $2.6 million.

All 29 arrested have been released on bail and enquiries are continuing in Hong Kong and Australia.

Australia Immigration Department
ICAC Hong Kong

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