A man has paid 90,000 Australian dollars in bribes to Bangladeshi government officials in order to influence the investigation into the mysterious death of an Australian woman of Bangladeshi origin, and to get his own name removed from the final police file. A 51-year-old man has been arrested in Australia on that allegation.
A notice on the Australian Federal Police website says this is the first case to come before an Australian court over bribing a foreign government official for personal advantage and to change the course of a criminal investigation.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) confirmed that the accused was due to appear before Brisbane Magistrates Court on Tuesday (September 22).
The press release said the man, a resident of Redbank Plains in Queensland, was previously known to the dead woman. Police claim to have found specific evidence of a conspiracy to bribe foreign — Bangladeshi — government officials, and of large sums of money being sent to Bangladesh through banking channels.
How it began
The matter began nearly two years ago, in September 2024. The Queensland Police Service handed the AFP a report saying a woman holding dual Australian and Bangladeshi citizenship had gone missing after travelling to Bangladesh.
A search began with the help of international partners as soon as the report was received. The very next day, however, Bangladesh police informed the Australian authorities that they had recovered the woman’s body in Bangladesh. Forensic examination by Bangladesh police later confirmed that the death was not natural and was a suspicious death.
The AFP has international jurisdiction under section 115 of Australia’s Criminal Code to deal with cases in which Australian citizens are murdered, die unnaturally or suffer serious harm while abroad. On that basis the AFP’s global network began a separate investigation of its own, running alongside the continuing Bangladesh police inquiry.
The AFP’s intelligence investigation found that the accused had been engaged in a conspiracy involving financial transactions with several influential people in Bangladesh over two years, from September 2024 to September 2026.
According to the allegation, he sent a total of about 90,000 Australian dollars to Bangladesh, a substantial sum in Bangladeshi currency. The main purpose of sending the money was to bribe Bangladeshi government officials in order to influence the main investigation into the death in his own favour, and to have his name removed entirely from Bangladesh police investigation files and records.
To strengthen the investigation, AFP officers carried out unannounced searches at several leading financial and banking institutions in Sydney and Brisbane. Confidential records of international money transfers, digital transaction data and the bank accounts concerned were seized.
After two years of surveillance and evidence-gathering, a specialist AFP team raided two residential properties in the Goodna and Redbank Plains areas of Queensland simultaneously on Monday (September 21).
The 51-year-old man was arrested during the raid. Several important electronic devices were also seized from his home and sent for forensic examination.
The accused has been charged with a single serious offence of bribing a foreign government official under section 70.2(1) of Australia’s Criminal Code. Under Australian law, an offence under that section carries a maximum of 10 years in prison on conviction.
The AFP said that while this is the first case of its kind in its history involving the bribery of a foreign official for personal gain, the gravity of the offence makes it a landmark legal precedent. The Australian government’s recent firm stance against bribery and corruption internationally played a significant part in the investigation.
According to the report, all the AFP’s work on foreign bribery and corruption has been run by Taskforce Solaris since October 20, 2025. It is a specialist multidisciplinary team drawn from experts in many fields, working to prevent institutional corruption and money laundering at the international level.
The AFP is a founding member of the Bribery Prevention Network, a joint platform of business, civil society, academics and government agencies that works to maintain transparency in business and government activity and against corruption.
AFP Commander Stephen Joy said in a strongly worded statement: “Attempting to corrupt a judicial or investigative process — whether in Australia or overseas — is a serious criminal offence. The AFP will not tolerate such conduct in the slightest.”
He added: “We take allegations of bribery and corruption extremely seriously, particularly where there is an attempt to change the outcome of an investigation into a serious crime. Those who seek to interfere with or influence the justice system with money will have to face legal accountability.”
Commander Joy said the AFP was working in continuous coordination with international partners and Bangladesh police. Australian police made clear that while legal action has been taken over the attempted bribery to remove the name, the main investigation into the Bangladeshi woman’s mysterious death is not yet complete.