Former Aussie cops hired to track down China’s dirty money

An extraordinary covert operation on the Gold Coast is targeting millions of dollars worth of assets acquired by Chinese nationals in Australia.

Former Australian police detectives have been hired by the Chinese government to recover billions of dollars in alleged dirty money taken out of the country.

In an extraordinary covert operation, revealed by ABC TV’s Four Corners, the ex-police officers have been engaged by a company based in Hong Kong to help track and recover millions of dollars worth of assets acquired by Chinese nationals in Australia.

The operation, codenamed Project Dragon, is targeting the Gold Coast, where the private operatives say they have identified $80 million worth of lavish properties that they suspect has been bought with laundered cash by Chinese nationals.

Project Dragon is targeting the Gold Coast. Picture: Glenn Turner

Hong Kong-based barrister Conrad Wan, who works with the Chinese authorities to recover assets and money allegedly stolen from the state, told Four Corners that in the last decade

alone, China has been stripped of $1.6 trillion by criminals, corrupt officials and fraudsters.

“Most Chinese people will believe that Australia is a good place and more safe place

to hide their money,” he told Four Corners.

“One of the critical reasons is there’s a low successful case for the Australian government to send back any criminal from Australia to China by using the mutual assistance orders.

For this reason, they believe that no one can catch the Chinese criminal in Australia.”

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Former detectives have been hired by China to recover alleged dirty money.

Austin Whittaker, an ex-NSW Police investigator, intelligence analyst and Australian Army commando, has been hired by a company based in Hong Kong to recover properties, sell them and return the proceeds to China as part of Project Dragon.

He told Four Corners: “There’s what we’re referring to as a cluster of properties at Sovereign Island.

“Most of them, or all of them waterfront, luxuriously appointed, all vacant. It’s very early days for us with that set of properties and we’ll be doing some work on that.”

His colleague Jason McFetridge, a former New Zealand detective who is now a registered private investigator on the Gold Coast, told Four Corners Chinese nationals were paying for luxury properties in cash.

Jason McFetridge says Chinese nationals are bringing briefcases full of cash to real estate deals.

“Information I’ve received through realtors is that they find a property, they like it, they sign a sale of purchase and they buy the property with a large amount of cash. They bring

in a briefcase full of cash,” Mr McFetridge told Four Corners.

The detectives say their strategy is simple — they attempt to meet with the property owners, explain they are working for the Chinese authorities and see if they are willing to hand over ownership.

Both men told ABC TV’s Four Corners they were not taking their orders from a foreign state.

“No we’re not working directly for the Chinese government, Mr Whittaker said. “In this case the Chinese government has entered a public-private partnership with a Chinese company to which they are close who has the mandate to recover money that’s been unlawfully shifted out of China.

“And they’re simply engaging with them who are in Hong Kong to provide some expertise, some investigative resources to help them do that. Again, as I said, the agenda simply is to help stop the cash flow washing out of their economy.”

The former police officers have been engaged by a company based in Hong Kong to help track and recover millions of dollars worth of assets.

Mr McFetridge told Four Corners he felt comfortable working with the Chinese authorities.

“It makes it more streamlined. We’re dealing with Chinese in Australia. We reside in Australia. It makes it a bit more professional when you’re dealing with Australian law and

court matters, that type of thing. And we have a certain way of dealing with people.”

Former Scotland Yard investigator Neil Jeans said it was unprecedented for Chinese authorities to use private consultants like Mr Whittaker and Mr McFetridge to recover funds or assets.

“This is fairly unprecedented where you’ve got one state employing people in other

jurisdictions, particularly with the skills and background that these people have. Certainly haven’t come across it before,” he told Four Corners.

“I think they have to tread carefully. One of the challenges they’ve got is that they need to walk a very, very narrow line.”

Originally published as Former Aussie cops hired to track down China’s dirty money