CANBERRA: Under parliamentary questioning by Senate\u2019s Foreign Affairs Committee Chair the Hon. Eric Abetz, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has promised to investigate Azerbaijani bribe money that has reportedly landed in Australia.<\/p>\n
During the Senate Estimates questioning, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade also admitted that Artsakh \u2013 which Australia does not yet formally recognise as an independent state \u2013 is a \u201cparty\u201d to the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, reported the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU).
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Mr. Abetz, who is a former cabinet minister and part of the Australian Friends of Artsakh network, questioned First Assistant Secretary of the Europe and Latin Affairs Division of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Ms. Catherine Raper on these issues of importance to Armenian-Australians.<\/p>\n
Mr. Abetz drew Ms. Raper\u2019s attention to reporting by the OCCRP (Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project) that indicated over US$200,000 of Azerbaijani Laundromat was linked to Australian companies.<\/p>\n
The Azerbaijani Laundromat refers to an international money laundering and bribery scheme that saw US$2.9 billion funnelled into the pockets of European politicians, journalists and organisation officials in exchange for silence on Baku\u2019s human rights abuses between 2012 and 2014.<\/p>\n
Despite indicating during the last Senate Estimates period that her Department would investigate the report\u2019s findings, Ms. Raper told Mr. Abetz that they were \u201cnot aware\u201d of the report or the suggestion that money had found its way into Australia.<\/p>\n