Shocked customer tells jury of $2.4m missing from CBA account

A Commonwealth Bank customer visited Sydney only to make a shocking discovery at a local bank branch, a jury has heard today.

A Commonwealth Bank customer living overseas was shocked to learn $2.4 million had been taken from his account years earlier without his permission, a jury has heard.

Former Macquarie University student Junchi Ma, 31, is fighting multiple charges in the Downing Centre District Court, including dealing with the proceeds of crime.

The trial has been told Ma’s then girlfriend, Angie Tsai, was a CBA teller in Sydney when she unlawfully withdrew more than $2 million from Julius Quan’s account in 2015.

Ma’s defence barrister, Winston Terracini SC, argues his client had nothing to do in any meaningful way with the misappropriation of that money and it was Tsai who had the expertise to transfer it.

Junchi Ma is on trial in the Downing Centre District Court. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Damian Shaw

Ma’s ex-girlfriend Angie Tsai.

Mr Quan appeared via video link from South Africa on Friday and told the court he had opened his account while in Australia in the 1990s but did not set up online banking as the technology was not available at the time.

Ma’s defence barrister Winston Terracini SC.

He agreed he returned to South Africa but said he continued to transfer money back into the CBA account about every six months via inter­national money transfer.

Mr Quan visited a CBA branch in Sydney’s CBD in March 2019 only to be told he only had about $13,000 left in his account and that $2.4 million had been withdrawn years earlier in 2015, the jury heard.

Mr Quan made a declaration he had never authorised the withdrawal and also made a report to police.

CBA employee Claire ­Holder, who has worked as an executive manager of branch fraud originations and scams at the business, also gave evidence at the trial.

Mr Terracini asked Ms Holder: “How is it possible that somebody who’s got a bank ­account in this bank and the bank effectively allows someone to take $2.4 million out of it and they don’t do anything for four years?” Ms Holder ­replied: “I don’t know.”

Mr Terracini also questioned how a CBA employee was able to do such a transfer without supervision.

Crown prosecutor Michael Smith has said he expects Tsai, who previously pleaded guilty, to tell the jury that Ma had wanted to use some of the money to purchase a Ferrari.

The trial continues.