How ‘candy’ and ‘monthly messages’ enriched a president and his mates

An Australian businessman systematically bribed the president of Nauru and other top political officials, leaked documents show, paying millions of dollars to seek advantage for his company.

Officials in Canberra covertly tracked the transactions but no Australian bribery charges have been laid against any individual, and both the former Gold Coast businessman, Amit Gupta, and the Nauru politicians involved have continued to build power and wealth in the face of stymied federal police inquiries.

Nauru President David Adeang (right) met with Treasurer Jim Chalmers in Melbourne. Credit: Nauru Government

One of those bribed over a decade ago by Gupta, veteran politician David Adeang, became Nauru’s president in October, despite evidence suggesting he may have repeatedly broken Nauru’s laws by receiving secret payments.

Adeang met with Australian treasurer Jim Chalmers and other senior officials on the sidelines of the ASEAN meeting in Melbourne this week. In January, he met with Pacific Minister Pat Conroy.

After his elevation to president, Adeang used his power to help appoint another man revealed in the leaked documents as a historical bribe-taker, former Nauruan president Baron Waqa, to the key regional post of secretary-general of the Pacific Island Forum. Australia also supported his appointment.

Pacific Minister Pat Conroy and Nauru’s President David Adeang in late January.

The AFP has been investigating businessman Gupta, an Australian national, since 2012. A year later, he fled Australia to Dubai, just hours after police raided his home. However, police have failed in an attempt to extradite Gupta from Dubai, with authorities there ruling Australia’s request was flawed because it involved alleged crimes that weren’t illegal under UAE laws at the time of the suspected offending.

Sensitive police documents sighted by this masthead reveal the Australian Federal Police believe Gupta paid bribes (code named “candy” and “messages” in separate leaked documents) to Adeang and other Nauruan politicians in an attempt in 2010 to install Waqa as Nauru’s president and Adeang as his deputy.

In return Adeang, a long-time political kingmaker, promised to organise Gupta favourable access to the country’s phosphate, which is used in fertiliser.

Bank records and previously secret emails obtained by this masthead – and published online for the first time – reveal details of how Adeang has been enriched by $850,000 or more in illicit payments from Gupta and his relatives.

Adeang and Waqa could not be contacted for comment, but have previously denied bribery allegations. Adeang said in 2015 they were “baseless claims … all of which have been consistently disproven, and to be honest, are of no interest to Australia as they are Nauruan domestic matters”.

Adeang is also implicated in a separate alleged bribery plot, involving allegations he received illicit payments sourced from Australian businesses involved in asylum seeker offshore processing on Nauru. An Australian law enforcement intelligence report from early 2021, sighted by this masthead, shows at least $300,000 was paid into Adeang’s bank accounts in 2020.

Those payments have been traced by Australian Federal Police as part of an investigation into allegations Australia’s offshore processing subcontracts were rorted enriching Nauruan officials.

The intelligence report referred to “rapid movement of large volume of funds by David Adeang, forming a suspicion of corruption and money laundering”. When the $300,000 moved through Adeang’s accounts in 2020, he was Nauru’s justice minister and responsible for negotiating with Australia on offshore processing.

Pacific Island Forum chief and former Nauruan president Baron Waqa.Credit: Michelle Smith

Both sides of politics

The leaked documents also reveal Gupta made payments between 2008 and 2013 to Adeang’s political opponent, the ex-president turned speaker of the island nation’s parliament, Marcus Stephen. Stephen received payments totalling $170,000 while president between 2007 and late 2011. He also did not respond to attempts to contact him.

Multiple payments from Gupta to Adeang and Stephen, along with at least eight other senior Nauruan officials, are referred to in coded emails as “candy” and “messages”.

Other emails are more explicit, with reference to payments for Adeang’s school fees and to buy a car to help people politick.

In one leaked email from 2010, Adeang described his intention of “working together in partnership for the longer term” with Gupta. Around the same time, Gupta emailed Adeang instructions about an apparent cash drop off in Brisbane.

“Please advise person concerned to meet at 12-12:30 pm tomorrow (Sunday) at Hungry Jack’s Shop at Queen Street Mall. There will be one person who will call her mobile and meet and give her a packet.”

The documents show that, in 2010, Gupta paid $585,000 to at least 10 Nauruan politicians aligned to Adeang to secure their vote to “topple” the then government of Marcus Stephen in return for ongoing and favourable access to phosphate.

The plot failed, and it wasn’t until 2013 that Adeang succeeded in his long-term plan to install Waqa as president.

Political power

Despite wide knowledge and evidence of the bribery allegations in Canberra and across the south pacific, Adeang and Waqa continue to wield political power in the region, and over Australia, due in part to Nauru’s role as the sole remaining asylum seeker offshore processing site.

Adeang was elected Nauru’s president last October, but prior to that he controlled Nauru’s offshore processing negotiations with Australia as a senior minister. Thirty-nine people seeking asylum were sent to Nauru last week after arriving on a boat in Western Australia.

Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong with Pacific leaders in 2022.Credit: Joe Armao

Successive Australian governments have remained quiet about evidence of Adeang’s corruption. After Chalmers’ meeting with Adeang, who is also Nauru’s finance minister, the Nauruan president posted on Facebook that their discussions had “centred on finance and economy including banking, setting the pace and direction as Nauru shifts banking services”.

Chalmers was approached for comment and declined to confirm if he had been briefed on the bribery investigation.

The Nauruan politicians also wield regional power. Waqa was recently appointed, with Australia’s support, to the top role at the Pacific Islands Forum, which plays a key role in regional affairs and managing China’s rise.

Earlier this year, Adeang switched Nauru’s allegiance from Taiwan to China, with Taiwanese officials stating he had done so because Beijing was willing to fill a funding shortfall caused by Canberra reducing the money for offshore processing.

A spokesperson for Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong refused to answer questions about what the Australian government knew of bribery allegations against Waqa, and why it supported him.

Former president of Nauru Marcus Stephen.Credit: Glen McCurtayne

Well funded, well lubricated

The emails published by this masthead today show how explicit the politicians were when asking phosphate magnate Gupta for money.

“One and last request, if candy can be organised so that I can use on my trip to Copenhagen,” Stephen emailed Gupta in December 2009.

Some of the payments to Stephen were made in cash in Queensland and recorded in Gupta’s company’s files as: “cash given to Amit for Nauru president.”

Adeang though was the biggest recipient of suspect payments. The payments from Gupta, along with the funds sent to Adeang’s account in 2020 and linked to offshore processing contractors, total at least $1 million.

More than $850,000 was paid to Adeang by Gupta and his relatives as they sought control over Nauru’s phosphate industry between 2008, when he was an opposition MP, and 2013.

The leaked emails reveal a series of messages sent between Gupta and Adeang between 2009 and 2010, including as Adeang embarked on an ambitious plot to replace then-president Stephen with Waqa in a move that would result in a government favouring Gupta’s business interests.

On August 21, 2009, Adeang reminded Gupta to pay him his monthly “message” because Adeang had “school fees and associated expenses to meet.”

A few months later Adeang wrote another reminder saying: “Can i take this opportunity to pls remind you of the November message … most grateful for your continued assistance. David.”

Corresponding bank records show that on November 13, one of Gupta’s companies transferred $9400 to Adeang’s Australian account.

Then in December, Adeang wrote again to his Gold Coast benefactor: “Dear Amit, just a friendly reminder pls for the December message.” The email was followed by another bank transfer, with $13,700 wired to Adeang’s Australian bank account by a Gupta-linked firm.

Adeang also sought a “modest amount of funds” to help a large group of other opposition politicians, whom Adeang was working with to oust Stephen.

In an email dated November 2009, Adeang requested $7000 to buy a car the politicians would use “for group activities in the political arena” and for meals that were “well funded, well lubricated”.

“The group would have of course have no knowledge of the source of funding but i would mention that it is externally sourced from a friend to the group who wishes to assist our group’s efforts,” Adeang wrote to Gupta.

At one point Adeang complained that, instead of using the money Gupta had sent to run political campaigns, his group of plotters had instead “spent most of their time shopping and even more time horse betting at the TAB”.

Phosphate mining in Nauru has left an arid landscape. Credit: Angela Wylie

A phosphate monopoly

The requests for funds escalated during 2010 as Gupta pressed Adeang to wrest control of Nauru’s government, which would in turn hand Gupta control of the country’s phosphate industry.

“Please mobilize all resources to turn the table and whatever is required from our end please let us know,” Gupta wrote to Adeang.

Adeang advised him that the Nauruan politicians he needed onside would have their own demands.

“It is inevitable that they will have foremost in their considerations, their personal outcome after the change [in government] – that is, “whats in it for me”? I am counting on you to assure them of your support to them to convince them of the merits of change,” Adeang told Gupta via email.

In May 2010, Adeang demanded the biggest suspected bribe yet: a payment totalling $585,000 to be divided among several politicians.

One of those Adeang singled out for a kickback of $30,000 was Waqa, who was then an opposition MP. On May 8, Adeang sent Waqa’s Westpac account details to Gupta, asking for money to be wired to “BW”.

Banking records show that two days later, Waqa’s account was wired $30,000 by a Gupta-controlled company in the UAE called Pan Ventures Limited. “We are confident that with the resources above, we can further consolidate the votes that are already poised to topple government,” Adeang wrote to Gupta on May 8, 2010.

Days later, Gupta emailed Adeang to tell him the suspected bribes had been paid. “All transfers have been done … make 100% sure that they win.”

One charge laid

Eight years after beginning its investigation into these matters, the AFP laid a charge of bribery against one of Gupta’s companies, Getax. However, the firm’s lawyers are seeking to have the charges permanently stayed arguing evidence had been lost due to “unjustified and inexplicable delays in investigating and prosecuting the case”.

This masthead is not suggesting Getax is guilty of any offence, simply that charges have been brought and are being contested.

Sources close to the Australian corruption investigation in its early stages say the police were acutely aware of the extra sensitivity of the investigation given the involvement of high ranking Nauruan officials and the offshore processing regime.

Gupta’s business empire has continued to grow and sources close to him estimate his personal wealth is $800 million.

He runs multinational fertiliser firm Agrifields DMCC, which still buys phosphate from Nauru. His wife, who it is not suggested is involved in wrongdoing, has a significant stake in listed Australian fertiliser company Avenira.

The AFP’s years-long investigation into Gupta is one of several corporate bribery probes that have faced lengthy delays or collapsed. This masthead can reveal that the AFP’s foreign bribery case against two ex-executives from engineering giant SMEC was quietly withdrawn by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions last year.

Key laws set to remedy some of the problems that have dogged the AFP’s probe into Gupta and other cases were stalled before Australia’s parliament for years before finally passing last week. The laws create an offence of failing to prevent bribery, meaning executives who do not implement robust anti-corruption controls may face charges, even if it cannot be proven they knew of bribes.

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