Real Housewives Krissy Marsh: Aurnob Imtiaz admits to money laundering

A financial analyst has admitted to laundering more than half a million dollars stolen from Real Housewives star Krissy Marsh.

A financial analyst was instructed to spend more than $500,000 of a Real Housewife star’s money on gold bars for his friend, it can be revealed.

Aurnob Imtiaz, 28, then a financial analyst at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, pleaded guilty to recklessly dealing with the proceeds of crime on Thursday related to $555,525 stolen from The Real Housewives of Sydney star Krissy Marsh, as stated in a set of bizarre agreed facts.

The more than half a million dollars in a Trust account was meant to pay for stamp duty for her new $10 million holiday home in Noosa Heads.

Aurbob Imtiaz, 28, leaves Downing centre courts. Picture: Damian Shaw

Marsh’s Trust manager received a false email from addresses with “deceptively similar account names” as Marsh’s Queensland lawyers and Marsh herself, asking them to transfer the money to a different bank account.

As a result, the Trust manager transferred the $555,525 into Imtiaz’s personal bank account, to which he had sole access.

Police facts refer to what Imtiaz, of Hillsdale, told police in an his interview on October 2, 2020.

Imtiaz told police his friend “Frank” approached him about “overseas money he was trying to bring into the country”.

Real Housewives of Sydney star Krissy Marsh. Picture: Supplied

Frank told him he needed bank accounts to transfer the money and Imtiaz agreed to give him his.

But it was not “overseas money” at all but stolen money.

Imtiaz was told when the money was deposited into his account he would need to exchange it for 6kg of gold.

On March 11, Imtiaz visited gold business ABC Bullion in Sydney and paid $492,054 for six 1kg gold bars.

He handed Frank the gold outside of the ABC Bullion building, according to police facts.

He also visited a gold bullion business called Jaggards on Pitt St and paid $42,228.55 for a 500g gold bar, which he also gave to Frank.

Financial analyst Aurnob Imtiaz said he knew about anti-money laundering laws due to his work as an accountant. Picture: Facebook

CCTV shows him in both these gold shops.

Frank paid Imtiaz $40,000 for his involvement, Imtiaz told police, which he used to pay down loans.

As a result of the transactions and spending, Commonwealth Bank started an internal investigation.

About five days later, Imtiaz visited Maroubra Police Station and filled out a false Statutory Declaration which said his friend had exchanged some of his gold and jewellery for an amount of money and he had “reinvested the gold for his personal collection”, police facts state.

Frank and “the guys on the other end” provided details to Imtiaz to get the bank off his back, such as screenshots of text messages, and the offender fabricated other documents for Commonwealth Bank investigators, Imtiaz told the police.

Krissy Marsh from Real Housewives of Sydney with husband John. Picture: Supplied

Imtiaz kept in contact with Frank because he wanted him to “help me get out of this predicament”, he told police.

When Imtiaz tried to find out about Frank’s higher-ups, he just said he referred to them as “honcho” or “master”, according to police facts.

Imtiaz acknowledged that the money transferred to his account was “definitely not legitimate” but denied knowing the money had been stolen and said he knew about anti-money laundering laws due to his work as an accountant.

He has pleaded guilty to recklessly dealing with $555,525 in the proceeds of crime and making a false statutory declaration.

He will return to the District Court on April 30 to fix a sentence date.