CBA laundering scandal
CommBank fail let criminals ‘move millions’ through deposit machines
FOREIGN criminal syndicates including major drug traffickers were able to launder millions of dollars through Australia after the Commonwealth Bank allegedly failed to comply with strict money laundering and counter terrorism financing laws, or to monitor almost 780,000 accounts.
The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) yesterday filed a motion in the Federal Court to prosecute the bank, alleging 53,700 contraventions of the AML/CTF laws since 2012.
According to the lodged statement, part of the contravening of laws stemmed from CommBank’s rollout of Intelligent Deposit Machines, similar to ATMs but which accept cash and cheque deposits.
The machines have been so popular that by June last year $1 billion a month was being deposited this way.
But according to AUSTRAC, the machines were targeted by money laundering syndicates and criminal gangs wanting to move proceeds of their drug manufacturing and trafficking sales. It is understood these gangs include known criminal figures linked to bikie groups.
In one case, between November 2014 and August 2015, cash deposits totalling $27.2 million were made to one account and almost immediately transferred offshore.
“The deposits were the proceeds of a drug manufacture and importation syndicate,” the filed motion states. “Three individuals have been charged with dealing with proceeds of crime, with one ... already having been convicted.”
In another case, CommBank had allegedly identified repeated suspected structured cash deposits to 16 of its accounts, 15 carrying fake names, moving cash to China.
“Notwithstanding this suspicion, between April and 1 July 2015, CommBank permitted approximately $9.1 million to be transferred from these accounts to Hong Kong.”
The Australian Federal Police later established the bank accounts were opened by foreign nationals on holiday visas for the sole purpose of making bulk cash deposits here to launder tens of millions of dollars back overseas.
Peter Clark, acting head of the financial intelligence and regulatory agency, said for three years, CommBank did not comply with requirements of its AML/CTF program relating to monitoring transactions on 778,370 accounts.
“AUSTRAC alleges that the bank failed to report suspicious matters, either on time or at all, involving transactions totalling over $77 million,” he said.
In a statement, CommBank acknowledged the civil proceedings. “We take our regulatory obligations extremely seriously. On an annual basis we report over four million transactions ... in an effort to identify and combat any suspicious activity.”