Administrators searching for $15m in funds still held by Chang Jiang Financial

The administrators of a currency remitter at the centre of one of Australia’s biggest money laundering rings says there’s $15m of customer funds yet to be located.

Up to $15m in customer funds held by a currency remitter, which was allegedly at the centre of one of Australia;'s biggest money laundering operations, has yet to be found.

Up to $15m in customer funds, believed to be held by a currency remitter allegedly at the centre of one of Australia’s biggest money laundering rings, has yet to be found, according to administrators.

Hamilton Murphy partner Stephen Dixon told the creditors of Chang Jiang Financial on 11 December he currently did not have access to most of its records. He said they were still in the possession of police.

In October the Australian Federal Police arrested and charged seven people connected to the company, alleging it was secretly run by the Long River crime syndicate and had laundered $229m over the last three years.

The company operated through various entities and from a number of sites across Victoria, NSW, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia. Four Chinese nationals and three Australian citizens were charged for their alleged involvement in the money laundering syndicate.

Mr Dixon revealed to creditors he was aware of $15m in customer funds apparently held by the company “administrators and their staff were currently working to locate”.

In minutes lodged to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission total cash collected by administrators from safes at each shop amounted to about $581,523.08.

There were six creditors identified at the meeting who were owed $6.3m.

One creditor Ye Zhou said through a general proxy “customer funds had been transferred to Chinese bank accounts”.

Mr Dixon said he would attempt to contact foreign entities “once more information is available” but said he did not have access to all the company’s books and records.

“Notably, the company’s MYOB file is currently not available due to the file being deactivated in response to the company’s inactivity,” he said in the minutes.

The AFP alleges the Chang Jiang Currency Exchange was able to hide its illegal behaviour because it looked like a legitimate and lawful money remitter.

In October more than 240 AFP members, plus 92 specialist members, executed 20 search warrants across every mainland state while simultaneously restraining more than $50m in property and vehicles under AFP-led Operation Avarus-Nightwolf.

The AFP will allege the company facilitated a system for organised criminals to secretly transfer unlawfully-obtained money in and out of Australia. The AFP alleges the amount of money laundered between 2020-2023 was $228,883,561.

It is alleged some of the money laundered by the syndicate was from the proceeds of crime, including from cyber-enabled scams, the trafficking of illicit goods and violent crimes. It is alleged the syndicate would coach its criminal customers on how to create fake business paperwork, such as false invoices and bank statements.

It was alleged this enabled criminal customers and the Chang Jiang Currency Exchange to show authorities unlawfully-gained money was from lawful sources in the event the transfers came to the attention of authorities.