A Sydney Chinese-registered agency that helps Chinese emigrate to Australia has been charged with a "suspicious transaction" of more than A $ two hundred thousand, a move that could violate the Anti-money laundering Act. The money was recently frozen by the court.
More recently, the Sydney Supreme Court opened a case involving money laundering by Chinese. It happened in 2015 and recently got a verdict.
One day in March that year, Weili Cui and his friend Bei Jiang walked into the lobby of a Sydney branch of the National Bank of Australia, (NAB).
When the two men took out the cash in their hands, the bank staff immediately felt too suspicious! Who`s going to come to the bank with more than $ two hundred thousand in cash?
Under normal circumstances, shouldn`t large money transactions use cheques?
An Australian federal police officer, Darren Burtenshaw, who was on vacation, was also on the scene, and his professional sensitivity led him to immediately collect the cash and bring them to the police station for questioning.
At the police station, Weili Cui said the $ two hundred thousand cash was provided by a Chinese man named Junguo Wang (Jason.
Jason, who runs an immigration and visa services agency that specialises in Chinese immigration, asked his wife, Bei Jiang, to go to the bank with Weili Cui to deposit money that day.
It turns out that Jason once helped Weili Cui and her husband to handle the immigration business. One day, he called Weili Cui, and asked if she needed a change.
Jason: Hello, Cui,. My friend has $ two hundred thousand in cash available now. Would you like to swap it with the Bank of China`s buy-in exchange rate?
Weili Cui:, what?! Cash? I also thought it was in the form of bank transfers that were usually carried out by foreign exchange companies.
Jason: has cash in hand and doesn`t want to transfer money through a bank.
Weili Cui:, I wonder if this cash could be fake money.
Jason: there are few fake money found in Australia.
According to the phone recording released by court, Weili Cui knew there was something wrong with the money, but still acquiesced in it.
Later, Weili Cui went to Jason`s office and saw two men, "one fat and one thin", and told the police who had recorded it.
Although, Weili Cui denied it on court and overturned his statement at the police station, the evidence seems to suggest that the money came from Jason,.
But the High Court Grand judge McCallum argued that Ms Choi`s earlier mention of the money came from "one fat and one skinny" two men, raising her doubts about the reliability of the money.
Eventually, the court decided to freeze the "suspicious asset" because it could not prove the source of the money was legal.
In addition, according to the report, authorities have launched an investigation into the immigration agency under the name of Jason, in order to further verify whether other aspects of the immigration agency have violated the relevant law regulations.
