A man has been sentenced to 18 months jail for dealing with more than $3.6 million cash suspected to be proceeds of crime as part of the AFP’s crackdown on money laundering syndicates.
AFP investigators attached to Taskforce Avarus – a multi-agency operation combatting criminal networks laundering money in Australia – watched the Chinese national collect large sums of cash on a number of occasions between January and April 2022.
The 36-year-old man, employed as an accountant at an Australian-based company, made arrangements to collect money that was suspected to be proceeds from criminal activity through an encrypted messaging service. The cash was often delivered in cardboard boxes, bin liners and shopping bags.
The encrypted messages included coded references and instructions on how the cash should be deposited at a bank.
On about 28 occasions across a four-month period, the man deposited a total of $3.5 million cash into the bank account of the company where he was employed.
When he was arrested outside a Sydney bank branch on 28 April, 2022, AFP officers located $143,295 in a black shopping bag.
AFP Detective Superintendent Craig Bellis said the AFP was focused on prosecuting those laundering criminal proceeds in Australia.
“The AFP is relentless in tracking down highly organized and sophisticated criminal networks which launder dirty money through Australian financial systems,” he said.
“This criminal enterprise is not only illegally bankrolling high-flying lifestyles, but is often funding future criminal activity by offshore and Australian syndicates.
“Through the dedicated work of Taskforce Avarus, those who engage in money laundering and financial crime should be aware the AFP is working to track them down and prosecute to the full extent of the law.”
Taskforce Avarus is using the firepower of the AFP, AUSTRAC, Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission and Australian Border Force to unravel the complex structures and methods criminals adopt to hide their illicit money.
The man was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, with a six-month non parole period.
