A further conviction late last week wraps up the Reserve Bank "banknote bribery" affair.Christian Boillot, 67, pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiring with Note Printing Australia Limited, Securency International Pty Ltd and others to offer to bribe a foreign public official of Bank Negara Malaysia, in order to obtain or retain business in Malaysia.The period of Boillot's involvement in the conspiracy was between 1 October 2001 and 24 December 2003.For the offence of conspiring to offer to bribe a foreign public official, Justice Jane Hollingworth sentenced Boillot to imprisonment of 2 years and 6 months - but suspended.Boillot spent 84 days in custody; 72 in Germany before his extradition to Australia, and a further 12 days in Australia before granted bail seven years ago. Boillot was employed in the international sales and marketing section of NPA from some time in the 1990s until January 2002, at which time he was appointed to a banknote specialist support position with Securency.The Malaysian conspiracy, Hollingworth wrote in sentencing remarks, "was one of several conspiracies entered into by Securency and/or NPA in South East Asian countries. In each affected country, one or both of the companies engaged a local agent to assist in obtaining contracts to supply their products to the local central bank. "The local agents were remunerated by way of success-based commissions. The parties to each conspiracy agreed that the local agent would offer part of the commission to one or more bank officials, with the intention of improperly influencing them in the exercise of their duties."The RBA had been paying substantial commissions to overseas agents since the early 1990s, before the incorporation of Securency. "During the late 1990s and early 2000s, the boards of the RBA, Securency and NPA were well aware that very substantial, success-based, commission payments were being made to local agents (including in Malaysia) to obtain contracts with overseas banks. "I do not know the extent to which individual board members knew or suspected that some part of the agents' commissions were to be used to offer bribes to foreign bank officials."You joined the conspiracy in late 2001, when you first became involved in marketing to Malaysia. You were well aware that what you and others were doing was illegal, and was not something that should be openly discussed or documented."The conspiracy ended in December 2003, when NPA entered into a contract to supply the Malaysian bank with 160 million 5 ringgit polymer banknotes. NPA used Securency's polymer substrate in manufacturing the banknotes, and the contract price of $15.2 million included a price for that substrate."NPA paid the agent commission totalling $2.19 million, which represented 17 per cent of the contract price."