Compumedics, which has identified China as one of its key growth markets, told The Australian Financial Review it didn't know the company that allegedly paid the bribe and wasn't aware of the court case.

"Compumedics has relationships with a number of key distributors in China," a spokesman said. "These distributors all use sub-distributors in various provinces in China.

"We will undertake our own investigation and review our own policies in order to determine if there is anything further we can do, from our own governance perspective, to avoid issues of this nature in the future."

Greatly disappointed

Box Hill Institute, a training college funded by the Australian government, said it had never authorised the payment of bribes in China and was "greatly disappointed to find out that an international agent purportedly working on our behalf has been involved" in a corruption case.

In 2007, Box Hill Institute signed an agreement to provide teaching resources, curriculum and study materials to the Hunan Trade and Business Vocational College.

According to the court documents, the institute's agent paid an intermediary, referred to as Mr He from Hunan Zhongxin International Travel Agency, a fee of 319,200 yuan for facilitating the deal.

Mr He, in turn, paid 90,000 yuan to the college's party secretary Huang Jianzhong, who is serving a 10-year jail sentence.


"Box Hill Institute condemns the practice of bribery and any type of corrupt behaviour," chief executive Norman Gray said in an emailed statement. "Whilst we have a rigorous due diligence process for any new agents, as a result we will be conducting a thorough review of all of our existing international agent agreements."

Two other educational institutions, the University of Southern Queensland and Melbourne Polytechnic, were named in a separate corruption trial of a university academic.

Yao Zhenxiang, dean of the international division of Zhejiang University of Technology, received a 100,000 yuan bribe for his "support" extending a joint program conducted between the Chinese university and the two Australian institutions, according to the court documents.

The bribe was paid in mid-2008 by a businessman, named only as Mr Xu, and the agreements were subsequently extended. Yao was handed a 10-year jail sentence in November 2014 for accepting bribes totalling 150,000 yuan.

"We are very conscious of Australia's anti-bribery laws," said University of Southern Queensland's vice-chancellor and president, Jan Thomas. "On the information available at present there is nothing to suggest that USQ was involved in the alleged payment to Mr Zhenxiang."

The university no longer has a relationship with the Zhejiang University of Technology but said it would conduct a review of its records in light of the court case.

Significant risk

All of these cases involved third parties allegedly paying the bribe, which presents a significant risk for companies and organisations operating in China.


In the case of Brisbane firm John Finlay Engineering, one of its staffers was directly involved in a corruption case, according to the files.

The company's general manager in Beijing, a man referred to as Mr Shang, allegedly paid 70,000 yuan to Qu Wenzhong, the deputy manager of the Dingji Coal Mine Project in 2006 and 2007, for helping to settle payment on a construction contract.

Qu's five-year sentence for accepting bribes was upheld in March 2014 and the court confiscated 810,000 yuan and a Rolex watch.

Despite repeated requests for a comment, the general manager for John Finlay Engineering did not return calls or respond to an emailed list of questions.

"We think there should be more Australian government support for Australian companies operating in challenging jurisdictions overseas so they are made aware of the risks and the tools and systems that can be put in place to mitigate the risk," said Transparency International Australia chief executive Phil Newman.

"There is a lack of awareness among Australian companies about our foreign bribery laws. It is not well known that if one of its agents participates in bribery, the Australian company is also responsible."

with Lucy Gao