AUSTRAC | Certain Risk

Sydney, Australia. – On October 23, 2017. - Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the image shows beautiful design glass windows of its office building at Darling harbour branch.

Australia’s Worsening Mortgage Fraud Scandal Spurs Talk of AML Changes

Major Australian banks are working with the country’s financial-crimes watchdog to assess the scale of an alleged mortgage fraud scheme that may extend well beyond an earlier A$1 billion estimate.

An AI-generated collage using an aerial photo of Sydney with three large lines of cocaine spread across the photo.

Australia Has a Serious Coke Problem

Australia’s booming cocaine consumption among affluent professionals has helped turn the country into the world’s unlikely cocaine capital, fueling criminal networks linked to murder, human trafficking, and extortion.

An abstract image of cut diamonds against a blue background

How Australia’s Diamond Sector Could Be Funding Russia’s War on Ukraine

Russian diamonds may be entering Australia through intermediaries and processing hubs despite sanctions on Moscow’s state-owned diamond giant Alrosa.

Jack Zhang, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Airwallex, Australia speaking in the Start-Ups in Austerity session at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2023 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, 20 January. Congress Centre — Jack Zhang, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Airwallex, Attribution (CC-compliant): “World Economic Forum Annual Meeting” by World Economic Forum (credit: World Economic Forum/Sikarin Fon Thanachaiary), licensed under Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–ShareAlike 2.0 (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0).

Airwallex Faces AML Audit over Concerns of Child Sex Abuse Funding

Australia’s financial intelligence unit has ordered Singapore-based Airwallex to review whether the payments giant has violated the nation’s anti-money laundering (AML) laws.

Australia’s Bendigo Bank Dinged after Deloitte Flags AML Weaknesses

Australian regulators took coordinated action on Thursday to address weaknesses in the anti-money laundering and risk-management controls of Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, including the imposition of a A$50 million operational-risk capital charge.

Ajay Suresh, Bitcoin ATM Sign (Hudson Yards, NYC, July 5, 2019), Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0), via Wikimedia Commons

AUSTRAC Fines Crypto ATM Operator as Scam Concerns Grow

Australia’s financial crimes watchdog has fined a second crypto ATM provider in a widening crackdown on machines increasingly linked to money laundering and scams, the country’s ABC News reported.