2 days ago
Court documents allege 'unexplained wealth' of Chinese national charged with reckless foreign interference
Hermes handbags worth tens of thousands of dollars, multiple properties, cash and a Rolex watch receipt for $24,000, are alleged to be part of the "unexplained wealth" of a Chinese national charged with reckless foreign interference.
The woman has been remanded in custody by the ACT Supreme Court after police alleged she had been tasked by the People's Republic of China to investigate a Buddhist religious group operating in Australia.
She faced the ACT Magistrates Court last Monday, and was charged with foreign interference.
Documents released by the court today include a list of items found during a search of the woman's home.
Police said they found more than six Hermes bags — and a receipt which indicated one of them had cost $30,000 — as well as boxes for luxury handbags, which police said were too numerous to count.
According to police, there were large quantities of goods from luxury brands including Burberry, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton.
But redactions in the police evidence hid some of the items found, including a receipt for one item worth $400,000.
The statement to the court alleged there was also the ownership, in whole or in part, of multiple properties and vehicles.
The court refused the woman's application for bail last week, in part because of a risk the woman would flee the country during the investigation.
Police documents showed that when she was arrested, five suitcases consistent with international travel were found in the woman's lounge room, and alleged that she told an associate she intended to leave and had packed bags of clothes.
In court last week, the woman denied she had any intention to flee.
Police have alleged the woman began working for China's Public Security Bureau in 2022, when she was tasked with numerous covert and deceptive information operations.
It's alleged the woman received her instructions in person and via the encrypted messaging app WeChat.
The documents reveal the assignments included collecting information on residential addresses for past leaders of the Buddhist association Guan Yin Citta Dharma Door.
The association is attached to the Mahayana Buddhist tradition and has been banned in China.
The group's Australian leader was barred from entering China in 2017, but the religion is free to practice in Australia.
To "infiltrate" Guan Yin Citta, the woman was also tasked with taking images of locations of the group's chapters nationally, collecting details about the leaders, and passing on images of front doors of businesses.
In the documents police said they remain concerned about other victims, and suggested there may be other "persons of interest".
The woman will be back in court in September.
