Cash courier launders millions to Hong Kong for syndicate

The crime

AUSTRAC’s data revealed that one offender (A) and other cash couriers were depositing and transferring millions of dollars internationally for a money laundering syndicate. Their method for moving funds was:

• Offender A opened two business accounts as sole signatory.
• Offender B met Offender A in person to hand over the illicit cash and give instructions about where the funds were to be transferred.
• Offender A deposited the cash into one of the business accounts, making several deposits across a number of different bank branches on the same day. She then transferred the funds overseas to accounts in Hong Kong and provided the receipts to Offender B.

Based on the AUSTRAC data, law enforcement arrested three offenders for dealing in property reasonably suspected to be the proceeds of crime and seized A$543,000 cash.

Penalties

Offender A was sentenced to 11 months jail, Offender B was given a 12-month intensive corrections order. An additional offender received a 12-month good behaviour bond.

How business reporting helped

Suspicious matter reports (SMRs) detailed the financial activity related to Offender A’s business account.

• Each month Offender A received hundreds of cash deposits and electronic domestic transfers into the account, totalling more than A$1 million. Some cash deposits were from third parties.
• Typically, around A$200,000 of the deposits each month were in structured cash amounts under the A$10,000 reporting requirement. The rest of the cash deposits were for larger amounts between A$10,000 and A$70,000.
• A small portion of the funds was then debited from the accounts through cash withdrawals or domestic transfers.
• The majority of the funds were transferred via international funds transfer instructions (IFTIs) ranging in value from A$10,000 to A$98,000, to businesses located in Hong Kong, some of which were thought to be foreign exchange companies.

AUSTRAC’s role

AUSTRAC’s analysis provided detailed insight for the investigation.

We identified a significant spike in financial activity in Offender A's business account over six months. In the first two months, Offender A received more than A$430,000 in cash deposits from third parties in various states and sent IFTIs totalling more than A$2.3 million to businesses in Hong Kong. Over the next few months further cash deposits worth more than A$4.8 million were made to the account.

Cash withdrawals, domestic transfers and IFTIs were usually made soon after a deposit into the account, which was not consistent with Offender A’s established profile. And although his business accounts appeared to be receiving significant amounts of money from various sources and then transferring the funds overseas on their behalf, the business was not registered with AUSTRAC as a remittance services provider.