How ‘cuckoo smurfing’ landed two mums in jail and left one family fighting to claw back $2 million

See how two “cuckoo smurfing” Aussie mums landed in jail, while another family that fell victim to the scam fights a big bank to claw back $2 million taken from them.

The liability of banks in money laundering scams — called cuckoo smurfing — will be tested legally this year, as the role of two mums sucked into helping commit the crimes can finally be revealed.

The case brought by the Marundury family against the Commonwealth Bank is attempting to claw back $2 million they lost when they were unknowingly targeted — and to prove the bank should have taken action to protect them.

The cases of the Marundurys and the smurfing mothers from Melbourne and Sydney, who were caught redhanded and jailed for three years, give a rare insight into how cuckoo smurfing has used vulnerable people to wash dirty money.

THE SMURFERS

The 34-year-old mum from Melbourne identified herself by handing over a five dollar note. On her signal, an accomplice gave her a blue suitcase with almost $700,000 in cash stacked inside.

It was an anonymous covert meeting at a house in Melbourne’s suburb of Richmond. No names were exchanged and there was no talking, according to court documents.

Mother Huong Quynh Dao had previously been contacted by someone to say they had a “present” (code for money/the suitcase) for her.

Money discovered when AFP raided a cuckoo smurfing operation. Picture: AFP

Details were sent from Vietnam on WhatsApp or Viber, including the account names and number and the amount of money to be deposited. Dao didn’t know the account owners, who supplied the money, or where it was from.

She followed instructions and deposited amounts slightly under the $10,000 threshold for authorities to monitor, into the accounts of innocent bank customers.

In just days she made 784 cash deposits totalling $2,127,930 into ATMs and bank branches across Melbourne and the suburbs of Richmond and Kew. Dao was being used a cash mule – the bottom rung in the cuckoo smurfing operation and the most likely to be caught.

A case discovered when AFP raided a cuckoo smurfing operation. Picture: AFP

Meanwhile in Sydney another mother of three, Thi Tuyet Anh Nguyen was recruited for a similar operation.

The then 39-year-old’s mission was to fly to Perth where she met a man in an Inglewood carpark who handed her half a million dollars in cash. She used ATMs to make deposits into the accounts of eastern states’ customers.

Both women came from a Vietnamese background. They were working hard in Australia to get ahead. Both pleaded guilty and said they were convinced by people in their own community to carry out the operation for small payments. In the case of Nguyen, it was just $2500.

They risked everything they had worked for. In both cases police were watching.

WHAT IS CUCKOO SMURFING?

Cuckoo smurfing works when an innocent person wants to transfer money from overseas into Australia – using a money remitter which is cheaper than the banks.

At the same time a drug boss in Australia needs to send money overseas perhaps to pay for drugs, without alerting authorities.

The overseas remitter keeps the innocent person’s money and uses it to pay the drug lord’s debt overseas. The money never leaves the country.

In Australia, the remitter arranges for the same amount of money the innocent person is sending to be deposited into their accounts by smurfers. The smurfers do it in lots of less than $10,000 using ATM machines to avoid scrutiny.

The innocent party gets the all money they were transferring and expecting – albeit in lots of little deposits. But they don’t know that anything has gone wrong.

THE VICTIMS

The Marundury family — an international student and her mother — have been suing the Commonwealth Bank in a David and Goliath, landmark case for years to try and get their money back. They were targeted by a cuckoo smurfing crime gang, separate to the one that Dao and Nguyen were involved in.

Delania Marundrury and her mother Widya lost almost $2 million sent to their Australian accounts to buy land, build a house and pay for Delania and her brother’s education and living expenses, because the Australian Federal Police (AFP) seized the money deposited in their accounts as proceeds of crime — even though it was unaware of what was happening.

There is no evidence that any one in the Marundury family was involved in any illegal activity and no one in the family has been accused of any crime.

The Marundrury family are suing the CBA. Picture: Supplied

The AFP has previously said “The issues arising from cuckoo smurfing matters are complex and turn on the individual facts of each case.”

Solicitor Gabriel Kuek of Access Law is running an action on the family’s behalf in the Federal Court of Australia.

In their statement of claim, the Marundrury’s say the CBA owed them a duty of care to take reasonable steps to protect the interests of its customer, against foreseeable harm, including losses from doubtful or potentially illegal transactions occurring through their accounts.

They also claim the CBA failed to take reasonable steps to stop the continuing illegal deposits by freezing or closing the accounts and effectively stopping the illegal deposits and by not doing that the CBA’s failure to act caused their losses.

Attempts by the CBA to have the matter dismissed have failed and the case is likely to be heard in the second half of 2024.

A spokesman for the CBA said “As the matter is before the courts, we are not in a position to comment.”

The STING

The AFP was monitoring crime syndicates operating out of Vietnam and in the case of Dao, had intercepted communications on the encrypted AN0M platform.

Money discovered when AFP raided a cuckoo smurfing operation. Picture: AFP

Officers swooped on Dao’s vehicle and home, finding a money counter, cash, and the suitcase.

The AFP at the time said she was charged with Victorian state proceeds of crime offences, thanks to intelligence from Operation Ironside.

The AFP was also watching Nguyen and she was arrested on the street in Perth.

Originally published as How ‘cuckoo smurfing’ landed two mums in jail and left one family fighting to claw back $2 million