Financial crimes regulator lands budget boost ahead of expected expansion of activities

The agency that’s levied hundreds of millions of dollars in fines against major casino operators has scored a federal budget boost to its bottom line and workforce.

The Star casino building in Pyrmont, Sydney. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

The federal government agency responsible for identifying criminal risks to Australia’s finances has scored a healthy boost to its budget and workforce after levelling hundreds of millions of dollars worth of fines against casino operators.

The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre or Austrac pursued Crown, Star and SkyCity over failures to report and prevent financial crime in their venues.

As reported by this masthead, Crown agreed to pay a $450m penalty and SkyCity struck an agreement to pay a $73m fine while Star had provisioned $150m to cover a potential fine.

Offences ranged from millions of dollars being stolen from a broken cash machine to failing to properly screen customers and prevent fraud.

Budget papers did not disclose the quantum of the penalties imposed on the casino operators, pointing out the SkyCity matter was still before the Federal Court.

However it was expected the agency’s law enforcement activities would expand in the years ahead in step with proposed reforms to the anti-money laundering and counter terrorism financing act.

It was noted Austrac currently regulated more than 17,500 individuals and businesses in the financial, bullion, gambling and digital currency exchange sectors.

In the event of legislative changes, Austrac’s regulated population would leap to more than 100,000 entities including real estate agents, lawyers, accountants and gem traders.

Under the reforms those businesses would have to report suspicious transactions to Austrac, which could require them to determine the source of any funds held by rich, politically powerful foreigners.

Consultation was continuing over the extent of the laws, which were expected to be drafted before the next election.

To assist with the likely expansion, Austrac’s total resourcing was lifted from $161m in the current financial year, to $203.5m in 2024-25.

At the same time the agency’s workforce was set to grow from 500 staff to 616.

As well as compliance and law enforcement, Austrac was responsible for education and outreach activities to support the likes of casinos to protect their businesses from criminal entities.

A checklist of Austrac’s performance indicated it was meeting most targets around compliance reporting, and financial intelligence.

The agency was not required to report on the sum of Australian Taxation Office-recovered revenues and liabilities attributed to Austrac data and enforcement.

Originally published as Financial crimes regulator lands budget boost ahead of expected expansion of activities