Chen-based money-moving companies include a company based in an insignificant house in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne. The business has been under investigation by state and federal agencies since 2016 on charges of transferring hundreds of millions of dollars in suspicious wealth to figures linked to organized crime, including criminally linked Victorian Simon Pan.
Xi Jinping’s cousin, Ming Chai.
Law and intelligence officials have also tracked the money movements of one of Pan’s business partners, Ming Chai, Xi’s cousin. The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald previously reported that Chai had a particular interest in the Security Intelligence Organization of Australia (ASIO) due to his family ties to the Chinese president and trade ties with figures. of Chinese crime and Chinese Communist Party agents in Melbourne. Chai, who has not been charged with any crime, previously worked for a public security agency and a Chinese telecommunications company with documented links to the Chinese military-industrial complex.
Pan, who runs a brothel and escort agency in Melbourne along with a business that offers short-term loans and transportation to wealthy Chinese players, has moved more than $ 200 million through the Chen Organization. , some of whom believe they are the proceeds of crime. .
Chai has transferred at least $ 1 million through entities linked to the Chen Organization, a network of remittance agencies operating in Australia, Canada, the United States and New Zealand. Officials suspect the organization is controlled by a Chinese-born New Zealand national and his wife, who also holds a New Zealand passport.
The Chen Organization’s operations have been detected in investigations by the federal police, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) and state agencies for 15 years. ACIC’s Operation Hoffman found that Australian drug lord Hakan Ayik was using the Chen Organization to transfer funds around the world, while AFP’s Operation Zanella identified alleged drug funds that were passing from the big Chinese players at Crown Resorts in Perth and Melbourne to the Chen Organization business, to being wired on the high seas.
Loading
The highly competitive business of Sun City Casino in Hong Kong and Macau, which has been repeatedly implicated in organized crime and whose founder, Macau-based Alvin Chau, has been charged with money laundering and gambling. illegal chance, used the Chen Organization to move tens of millions of dollars from Australia to China.
China’s multimillion-dollar precursor industry has no strict laws designed to stop the exploitation of organized crime. It has helped fuel the crisis of the synthetic drug fentanyl in the United States, which has sparked growing political controversy in the United States.
In February, Democrat David Trone, who co-chairs the U.S. Commission on Combating Synthetic Opioid Trafficking, told Politico: “China is heavily involved in the 64,000 [overdose] deaths we had because they are virtually the only supplier of precursor chemicals and precursor chemicals, which they are shipping to Mexico “for manufacturing in synthetic fentanyl.
AFP has been juggling for several years a complicated relationship with Chinese government police agencies. Chinese authorities have occasionally provided critical information to AFP about alleged organized crime activities, which have led to large drug busts and money laundering operations.
Loading
In 2020, in a 60-minute interview, then-Deputy Federal Police Commissioner Karl Kent refused to criticize China for the unbridled supply of precursors, instead of praising the “joint operation between AFP and the police.” aimed at methamphetamine production in mainland China.
Federal police are currently carrying out various civil actions on the proceeds of crime in Australian courts which were initiated by the information approved by the Chinese authorities.
But for the past five years, state and federal law enforcement agencies have consistently linked the figures to links with the Chinese government to organized crime in Australia. For example, a Strategic Intelligence briefing by the Victoria Police in 2020 linked money laundering casino activity to wealthy business figures working for Chinese Communist Party United Front organizations, while ‘ACIC and AFP had previously identified a drug import suspect who was carrying an ID that suggested he was working for the Chinese military.
The morning edition newsletter is our guide to the most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights of the day. Register here.