Money laundering – How much did we make?

Ten years ago I wrote a story for Australian Outlook; basically it read that if you wanted to launder money in Australia you could do it, buy a home and get a job.

It was based on the work by Professor Jason Campbell Sharman (who now has a professorship in Cambridge). The story is accessible here.

All good things come to an end and Australia picked up enough money that the international banking system said that we would be thrown out of it, if we did not change our ways.

So ten years on I revisit the story, and how have things changed and ask the questions ”How much did we make and what effect has it had over the whole economy?.”

We made a lot. Communist Cadre escaping from China were one of the main bringers in of the cash. Often they where escaping purges. Indian con -men followed them. There are no figures about how much except a Chinese report saying they had lost $120 billion; then gave two lists of one hundred offenders they said were hiding in Australia and America.

How times change. Austrac is the government department whose role to control the laundering of money previously meant blaming the Australian Federal Police for not taking action.

Here we see the change in attitude as discussed by Austrac’s Brendan Thomas,” Australia’s anti-money laundering laws have undergone the most significant overhaul in a generation. The reforms expand regulation to high-risk sectors such as real estate, lawyers and accountants, strengthen Austrac’s powers, and modernise the regime for digital finance.”

The costs of serious and organised crime in Australia, 2023–24 report by Australian Institute of Criminology, has money laundering necessary for about $83 billion worth of criminal activity with the illicit tobacco trade a major contributor. Right, so a major overhaul occurred with the Tobacco trade being the bad guy, money laundering is so out its not even seen as mentioning it separately. But you just can’t go into a real estate office with a couple of million and buy a place without some plausible explanation of where the money comes from, anymore.

Still it does not solve the question of money from overseas ending up in Australia to be cleaned. We may never know how much.

Which brings us to a the of moral question that banking countries have to face.

The Swiss built their banking houses on the money left in accounts by Jews who died in the Holocaust. The Swiss had no quandary in keeping the money right up till a couple of years ago when international courts demanded they pay recompense.

Australian banks are probably just as mercenary, however the money from the purges, the casinos and the Indian conman is still in the hands of the living. Who are still living amongst us.

Are we really know a banking rather than mining nation? Are we the Asian Switzerland in waiting? These and other questions require stories to themselves.