ASIC claims its hands were tied on scam syndicate that defrauded 34,000 Aussies

Australia’s corporate regulator has claimed it did not contact victims of a massive international scam syndicate because it was provided material from overseas police ‘for intelligence purposes only’.

ASIC deputy chair Sarah Court. Picture: Aaron Francis

Australia’s corporate regulator has claimed it did not contact victims of a massive international scam syndicate because it was provided material from overseas police “for intelligence purposes only”.

Speaking at a Senate estimates hearing, Australian Securities & Investments Com­mission deputy chair Sarah Court said the agency had an “advanced criminal investi­gation” under way into the crime syndicate that German police say defrauded 34,000 Australians out of more than $200m.

The regulator was looking at “individuals … based in Australia” who are believed to have assisted the scammers, she said.

German authorities leading an investigation into the syndicate shared information with ASIC but the agency was not told to contact victims, she said. “The information was provided to us expressly on the basis that it was to be used for intelligence purposes only. It was not provided for the purpose of ASIC contacting individuals … identified in that material.”

Her statements come despite German police telling The Australian in May that they provided affected countries a comprehensive database of evidence for the purpose of contacting and protecting victims who were at serious risk of losing more money from a syndicate that remains active.

The crime network was operating out of Serbian call centres and used mass advertising campaigns on Facebook and elsewhere online, featuring fake celebrity endorsements, to draw people into fraudulent cryptocurrency schemes.

Australia made up more than one-third of the 90,000 victims from 90 countries worldwide, German police said.

There were 14,000 victims in Canada and 13,000 in Europe.

Liberal senator Jane Hume has challenged ASIC over its response to a scam syndicate that defrauded tens of thousands of Australians. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Oliver Hoffmann, head of the economic crime unit at Baden-Wurttemberg in Germany, is leading investigations into the global crime syndicate and says victims should be warned they could suffer more losses.

Oliver Hoffmann, head of the German police cybercrime unit investigating the syndicate, said it was possible the scammers targeted countries where they knew law enforcement was not strong or not interested. “This was the reason why we sent it out – to prevent further crime,” he said.

Authorities in Germany sent letters to all victims in their own country, warning that they had been dealing with “an active criminal group” and advising how to file a criminal complaint.

Liberal senator Jane Hume repeatedly challenged Ms Court over ASIC’s response, asking whether there was any obligation on the agency to contact victims or share the information with the National Anti-Scam Centre. “By the sounds of things, some of these victims are quite old, they’ve been scammed out of millions of dollars … and so many thousands of them might not even know,” Senator Hume said.

One of the call centres in Serbia targeting Australia and other countries with cryptocurrency scams is taken down on a day of action on January 11, 2023, following investigations in Germany.

Ms Court said ASIC received “67,000 documents in raw form” in August last year after its investigators “proactively” sought information from German police about raids in Serbia in January last year.

ASIC provided the information to the Australian Federal Police “again for intelligence purposes only”, she said.

Victims’ losses were “more in the hundreds of dollars than in the millions of dollars”, she said.

German police and private cybercrime investigators have told The Australian that some Australian victims had millions of dollars stolen.

These include an 80-year-old retired Brisbane businessman defrauded of $3m