AFP officer’s home raided in anti-corruption investigation

Anti-corruption investigators have raided the home of a high-ranking Australian Federal Police officer.

The respected federal police veteran was suspended on Thursday after internal affairs officers searched his Canberra home.

A federal police commander was raided.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

Official sources, speaking anonymously to discuss confidential information, said the raid was prompted by allegations linked to a conflict of interest involving procurement decisions.

The federal police declined to say why the officer’s home was raided, stressing that “the AFP does not comment on internal processes relating to individual members”.

“Natural justice applies to AFP members. No further comment will be made at this time,” an AFP spokesperson said.

Word of the search of the officer’s home and his standing down spread rapidly across the Canberra law enforcement and national security community on Friday, but the AFP’s professional standards division also refused to divulge details of the allegations.

Since its inception last July, the National Anti-Corruption Commission has prioritised investigations targeting conflicts of interest involving government procurement.

There is no indication the NACC is involved directly in the raids, suggesting that the alleged misconduct of the commander does not rise to the level of serious corruption.

The officer has not been charged with any criminal offence. There is no suggestion by this masthead the officer is guilty of any offence, only that he has been suspended and his home raided.

The officer is the highest-ranking officer to be targeted with overt police action by the AFP’s internal affairs unit since the suspension of now former AFP deputy commissioner Ramzi Jabbour in 2019.

Jabbour was cleared of abuse of office offences in 2021 and has since resumed work in the public and corporate sector in senior roles.

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