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The AFP has charged 126 people with 158 money laundering offences in 2024, as part of ongoing operational priorities to target these enterprises and hit criminal groups in their wallets.  

As a result of these arrests, the AFP-led Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce (CACT) has seized or restrained around $23.4 million in criminal assets associated with money-laundering offences, causing significant disruptions to criminal networks across the country.  

Recent investigations have exposed the extent of large-scale and systemic money laundering throughout Australia, which is estimated to run into billions of dollars.  

The AFP’s Taskforce Avarus partners with agencies such as AUSTRAC, Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission and Australian Border Force to smash the illegal setups and structures that criminals use to hide their illicit funds. 

AFP Detective Acting Superintendent Luke Needham said money laundering was a significant enabler of criminal activity. 

“Money is the lifeblood of organised crime,” Det A/Supt Needham said. 

“Laundered money not only bankrolls lavish lifestyles for criminals, but also funds further criminal activity, such as illicit drug importations and weapons trafficking.  

Det A/Supt Needham said by targeting these funds, the AFP could cripple a criminal network, which could have wide reaching ramifications for transnational serious organised crime groups.  

“These offenders thumb their noses at law-abiding Australians who earn an honest day’s living, paying their taxes and being good community citizens,” he said.   

“The AFP, as well as our domestic and international law enforcement partners, will continue to disrupt and dismantle criminal enterprises through the targeting of illegally obtained wealth.” 

Taskforce Avarus recently dismantled an organised crime syndicate accused of laundering $10 million of criminal proceeds. The money laundering syndicate is alleged to have links to Sydney-based Korean and Middle Eastern organised crime figures. 

Four men were arrested in October and November, 2024, and charged with offences including recklessly dealing in proceeds of crime worth $1 million or more, contrary to section 400.3(2B) of the Criminal Code (Cth), and dealing with money believed to be proceeds of crime, contrary to section 400.9(1AB) of the Criminal Code (Cth).   

These offences each carry a maximum penalty of 12 years’ imprisonment. 

The men have been remanded in custody and are expected to appear in Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court on 15 January, 2025.  

CASE STUDIES 

Operation Avarus-Jax  

Operation Avarus-Jax is an investigation into the money laundering activities of a criminal syndicate, which offers money laundering services to other organised crime groups in the Sydney area.  

The syndicate is suspected of operating by moving cash through an illegitimate money remittance business to transfer the funds overseas, thereby avoiding reporting to AUSTRAC.  

The funds are then transferred back to Australia in cryptocurrency, into accounts specified by the organised criminal groups, in order to obfuscate the origins of the funds.  

Investigations led to the execution of search warrants in the Sydney suburbs of Ermington, Auburn and Penshurst, in February 2024. Subsequently, three men were charged with:  

• One count of dealing with property reasonably suspected of being proceeds of crime, money or property worth $100,000 or more, contrary to section 400.9(1) Criminal Code (Cth).  

• Three counts of dealing in proceeds of crime – money or property worth $100,000 or more, contrary to section 400.4(1) Criminal Code (Cth).  

• One count of recklessly dealing in proceeds of crime – money or property worth $100,000 or more, contrary to section 400.4(2) Criminal Code (Cth).  

This matter remains before the courts, with two of the men having pled guilty to their offences.    

Suspected criminal operation accused of laundering $1 billion 

In April, 2024, the AFP seized $500,000 as part of an investigation into a Sydney-based cheque cashing entity suspected of laundering more than $1 billion to facilitate tax fraud. 

It is suspected this operation was used by businesses from a range of industries to help them evade their tax obligations and commit tax fraud. 

The suspected criminal operation received business funds in electronic or cheque form and purported to provide goods and services in return, evidenced by fraudulent invoices. 

The participating business then received their funds back as cash, minus a commission. This is commonly known as a false invoicing arrangement, which is a key focus area for the Serious Financial Crime Taskforce, a joint initiative of the AFP and the Australian Taxation Office. 

Search warrants executed at seven residential and business properties in Sydney revealed more than $500,000 cash, financial documents, electronic devices, and mobile phones.  

Investigations into this matter remain ongoing.  

$2.3 million seized on Gold Coast during money laundering investigation 

In March, 2024, the AFP seized more than $2.3 million in cash and cryptocurrency as part of a money laundering investigation on the Gold Coast. 

The investigation stemmed from the December 2023 arrest of two Russian nationals – a man, aged 49, and a woman, aged 46, after about $1.95 million in cash and about $425,000 in cryptocurrency, as well as substantial financial records, were located during a search warrant at a home in Hope Island on the Gold Coast. 

The AFP alleges the Russian nationals laundered the alleged illicit cash by visiting various financial institution branches and automatic teller machines in New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and South Australia, conducting hundreds of cash deposits. 

It is further alleged the duo kept the cash deposits under $10,000 in an effort to avoid detection by authorities. 

The man and woman were each charged with three counts of dealing in the proceeds of crime - money or property worth $1,000,000 or more, contrary to section 400.3 of the Criminal Code (Cth). 

This matter remains before the courts.