Mau Van Long Nguyen, an Asian student in Brisbane, is trying to recover A $2.3 million, which, although in his account, cannot be moved because Australian police consider it "black money" and freeze his account.
Nguyen is reported to be the eldest son of a senior executive at a state-owned company in Vietnam. In 2012, Nguyen was granted an Australian student visa, enrolled in St John Paul College, and lives in a local host family.
It wasn`t long before Nguyen opened accounts with three different Australian banks at her mother`s behest and then slowly remitted 2.3 million Australian dollars to the accounts for 10 weeks, at a time of A $10, 000 at a time.
In December 2012, Australian police froze the account, alleging Nguyen`s mother was suspected of "money laundering."
But Nguyen`s mother insisted she was simply using Vietnamese jewellers to transfer cash to the Australian buying industry because it was faster and involved less paperwork.
The industry they are buying is understood to be next to their A $1 million riverside luxury apartment.
Australian police believe the money is likely to be part of the drug trade. "the criminal syndicate is doing this to launder money and evade government censorship through small deposits."
During the trial, a 39-year-old Sydney Asian man, Tien Minh Le, said in court: "A mysterious person who was involved in drug abuse and murder asked me to transfer A $42,000 to the Nguyen account. I got cash in the park."
Police told the court that Nguyen`s father, vice chairman of Vietnam`s largest gas supply company, had collected millions of dollars in ill-gotten wealth.
Nguyen`s father denied that he had a legal net worth of A $8 million.
Police said there was no substantial evidence that the money came from "illegal activity", but that Nguyen`s father had been confirmed corrupt, a claim by the Nguyen authorities that they had been acquitted of embezzlement.
Police lawyer Saul Holt QC told the court that Nguyen`s parents were "very shrewd businessmen" and that they had to get permission from the Vietnamese government to send money overseas.
Bruce Peters, a lawyer representing the Nguyen family, said it might be illegal to transfer money through jewellers to Australia, but the police do not have the power to enforce the law, and the case is still pending.
