Overview
- Authorities announced charges against four people linked to the pork industry and seized suspected proceeds worth more than $25 million, including about $3 million in cash and two vehicles.
- The agencies said the long-running scheme between 2017 and 2026 involved keeping about $10 million of sales off business books and moving more than $30 million in cash between New South Wales and Queensland concealed in freight vehicles.
- The charges were revealed on Monday, August 17, after Operation Ragamuffin, a joint intelligence-led probe by the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission, the NSW Police Anti-Money Laundering Unit and the NSW Crime Commission.
- Two Queensland-based defendants face counts including fraud, destroying records, receiving tainted property and making false declarations and are due in Brisbane Magistrates Court on September 14; two NSW-based people are charged with destroying or concealing accounting records and one faces separate child and animal-abuse material charges.
- Agencies say the case shows how legitimate trade channels can be used to launder money, will trigger prosecutions and asset-recovery actions under proceeds-of-crime laws, and could prompt greater anti-money-laundering scrutiny of food supply chains.