AUSTRAC broadens scope of anti-money laundering crackdown to target billions of dollars of drug money investment

Sky News AU

6 days ago

Australia's financial crimes agency is cracking down on the billions of dollars of drug money laundered throughout the economy as it broadens the scope of its interrogations.
Join SkyNews.com.au to watch the full interview behind the crackdown on Business Weekend from 11am AEST.
The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) on Thursday revealed it is looking at how real estate agents, lawyers, conveyancers, accountants and other professions can prevent money laundering.
It marks a shift for AUSTRAC which typically looks into the finance sector.
'AUSTRAC will look at risk and behaviour at an industry and sector level rather than focussing solely on individual entities,' AUSTRAC CEO Brendan Thomas said.
The department's deputy chief executive Katie Miller joined Sky News Business Editor Ross Greenwood where the question of how Australian criminals were laundering drug money arose.
'One number that rolls in my head … is the consumption of, for example, cocaine (and) illicit drugs in Australia is around $14 billion worth per year,' Greenwood said.
'That money has to be laundered because much of it is in cash. Same thing would go for the illegal tobacco trade.
'This is all money that becomes much more difficult to launder as a result of the actions that you will take against the gate keepers to much of the cash that might otherwise engage or find its way to legitimate business.'
Ms Miller said the financial crimes agency had broadened the scope of its concern to further crackdown on money laundering practices.
'This is about trying to close those gaps that money launderers can exploit,' she said on Business Weekend.
'Money laundering is organised crime. They look for every opportunity where they can hide their money (and) where they transfer their money.
'This is a constant game of just trying to fill those gaps, lift up the standards so that we just make it harder for criminals to hide the illicit proceeds of their crime.'
Greenwood on Thursday said the new efforts by AUSTRAC puts pressure on professionals, such as lawyers and real estate agents, to know where their clients' money is coming from.
They will need to have proof of where the money originates before spending large sums of cash into something like property.
'A lot of the money that comes through the cocaine trail ends up in houses in very affluent suburbs in Australia,' Greenwood said.
Ms Miller said by expanding the scope of AUSTRAC's view, it was cracking down on criminals that use professional services to access the financial sector.
The agency will particularly focusing on cash-heavy businesses and crypto ATMs, which AUSTRAC previously revealed it was cracking down on.
'We're still seeing very high risks of money laundering in that sector and the industry does need to lift its standards and start managing those risks a lot better than is currently happening,' Ms Miller said.
AUSTRAC in the past fined Westpac $1.3b, Commonwealth Bank $700m and is poised to fine Star Entertainment Group about $300m for money laundering practices.