$9m seized
Three accused barred from ANZ
At least three of six people arrested in a major police investigation into alleged money laundering have been barred from stepping foot inside an ANZ bank.
Authorities seized about $9 million in assets during Operation Menelaus in Auckland, police said.
A 36-year-old man and a woman, 33, appeared in the Auckland District Court, each facing one charge of money laundering.
Both were granted interim name suppression and bail by Community Magistrate Jan Holmes.
They were ordered to surrender their passports. Their bail conditions included being prevented from going to any ANZ branch or any other financial institution to deposit cash or cheques.
Holmes further told the pair not to conduct any electronic banking, apart from personal transactions. Court documents, viewed by the
Herald, show the woman is accused of providing one of her co-accused with $363,967 on June 5.
Police allege she knew the cash was the proceeds of crime.
A third person, a 42-year-old woman, appeared in the Auckland District Court earlier yesterday on nine charges of money laundering.
She allegedly participated in laundering about $6.17m through cash, property, home loans and deposits, bank accounts, and luxury vehicles, court documents state.
All three will be back in court next month to enter a plea. The Herald understands three others arrested during the investigation will appear for the first time tomorrow.
Police said a 38-year-old man faced 22 charges, including 20 counts of money laundering, while a 65-year-old woman faced six charges of money laundering and a charge under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act.
A 35-year-old male was also charged with three counts of money laundering, two of attempting to import a class A and class B drug, and three firearms charges.
Detective Senior Sergeant Wayne Gray, of the Financial Crime Group, told the Herald the 65-year-old woman’s anti-money laundering charge was over the way she was allegedly structuring transactions.
He alleged she had deliberately kept the transactions below a certain threshold, in a way “obviously trying to evade law enforcement”.
Gray said all those arrested had lived in New Zealand for several
years and some had citizenship.
The arrests, he continued, were related to an alleged organised criminal group police had been watching since the start of the year.
Operation Menelaus targeted alleged third-party money launderers, who Gray said helped criminal groups to move their money around and “give it that air of legitimacy”.
“Most crime types are out there to make money so money laundering just sits hand in hand with that.” The police inquiry was ongoing and it was possible more assets could be seized, Gray said.
As part of Operation Menelaus, police said officers executed search warrants yesterday at properties in Remuera, East Tamaki Heights, Papatoetoe and Karaka.
Three Remuera properties worth more than $7.3m were restrained by police. At the homes, police found $250,000 in cash and said they had frozen a further $727,000 in several bank accounts.
Luxury European vehicles, including a $280,000 Bentley Bentayga, a $120,000 Mercedes GLS, a Porsche Cayenne and a Mercedes C-Class, were also seized by police.