Former Leighton Holdings executive David Savage has stepped out of hotel quarantine and into police custody over his alleged role in an international bribery scandal involving lucrative Iraqi oil fields.
Australian Federal Police on Monday charged Mr Savage, 60, with knowingly providing misleading information in breach of the corporations act.
He'd just completed 14 days in a hotel quarantine facility after arriving from France on December 27.
The arrest is related to a nine-year investigation into alleged improper payments made by a Leighton subsidiary in 2010 and 2011.
The payments related to two contacts with Iraq Crude Oil Export worth nearly $US1.5 billion.
Investigators alleged Leighton Offshore funnelled bribes through entities associated with Iyer-associated companies and Unaoil to "guarantee approvals for the Iraq Crude Oil Export contracts".
"Police will allege the key targets of the bribery scheme were Iraqi Ministry of Oil officials and government officials within the South Oil Company of Iraq," federal police said on Monday.
Leighton, now known as CIMIC, reported the alleged incident to federal police in late 2011.
The subsequent investigation has involved the seizure of more than two million documents across 10 countries.
Mr Savage, a former chief operating officer for Leighton, is expected to face Sydney's Central Local Court.
A Brisbane man, 54, was charged in November with foreign bribery offences while a warrant for a third man, aged 62 and living overseas, has been issued.
