Billion-dollar AFP busts reveal what criminals do with their money

The update will reveal further police action means the value of assets confiscated has now topped $160 million, including more properties in Victoria and Queensland, additional bank accounts and luxury items.

Police claim the suspects were living the high life in mansions in Melbourne, flying private jets and buying luxury watches, wine and sake.

The assets are believed to include a Mercedes-Maybach GLS worth $400,000, a $94,000 diamond Rolex watch, handbags designed by Hermes and Louis Vuitton and bottles of Penfold’s Grange valued at more than $100,000.

The AFP charged nine members of another $10 billion money laundering operation in February called Operation Avarus-Midas and seized more than $150 million in Sydney property, cash and luxury items.

A 359-hectare site near Sydney’s second airport, which the AFP confiscated in February as part of the suspected money laundering operation, was put on the market and recently sold.

The taskforce also seized more than $47 million worth of assets in June under Operation Fuji, a joint AFP and Victoria Police investigation into a Middle Eastern organised crime syndicate allegedly running drugs from inside Barwon Prison.

Victoria Police charged 30 people and seized assets, with a number now forfeited, including houses, cars, fine art and a luxury yacht.

Stefan Jerga, the head of the AFP taskforce, said depriving criminals of their illegal wealth to stop them using the proceeds of crime to bankroll further criminal ventures was a key strategy.

Commissioner Kershaw made asset confiscation a key priority when he was appointed in late 2019 and set a five-year, $600-million restraint target. The taskforce has nearly doubled that already, and almost half of the total was accounted for this calendar year.

“Our highly-skilled and co-located, Australia-wide teams of police, financial investigators, forensic accountants, litigators, cryptocurrency experts, and partner agency specialists, will continue to be relentless in pursuing the assets and wealth of those who attempt to operate outside of the law,” Mr Jerga said in a statement.

The taskforce brings together the AFP, Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, the Australian Taxation Office, AUSTRAC and the Australian Border Force.

Commission acting executive director of intelligence operations Dr Katie Willis said organised crime was costing Australia up to $60 billion per year.

While the taskforce litigates matters in the courts, confiscated assets are managed on behalf of the Commonwealth by the Australian Financial Security Authority.

At the conclusion of successful legal proceedings, they are then liquidated by the authority, with the proceeds placed in the Commonwealth Confiscated Assets Account.