Brisbane at the centre of vast alleged money laundering operation
In just 15 months, a Brisbane businessman allegedly made $9.5 million in cash and cryptocurrency. A tidy profit for the owner of a sales promotion company.
Another business owner in West End allegedly made $6.4 million over a 17-month period, supposedly from his classic car dealership.
Federal police now allege the men were part of a large, sophisticated money laundering scheme linked to a Gold Coast-based security company that used its armoured transport unit as a front for its crimes.
Seventeen properties, vehicles, crypto wallets, bank accounts and about $21 million were seized last week after more than a dozen homes and businesses in Queensland and NSW were raided.
The couple behind the Gold Coast security company and the two Brisbane men were arrested and hit with a string of charges including money laundering and handling the proceeds of crime.
'This plot was elaborate and calculated, and it demonstrates the lengths criminals will go to make money,' said Detective Superintendent Adrian Telfer from the Australian Federal Police.
The arrests are the culmination of a nearly two-year investigation by Queensland Police's Joint Organised Crime Taskforce and Australian Federal Police, which began when officers traced suspicious transactions.
Investigators followed a money trail linked to the 32-year-old sales promotion business owner in the south-western suburb of Heathwood, which led them to the Gold Coast security company, which had transferred $190 million cash into cryptocurrency.
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