Police Raid Accounting Firm Amid Money Laundering Probe

Three staff at a Bankstown accounting firm, including its director, have been charged over their alleged role in laundering the proceeds of a syndicate. 

They are accused of defrauding Australian banks and lenders of millions.

Financial Crimes Squad detectives, backed by the NSW Crime Commission, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Tax Practitioners Board (TPB), executed a search warrant at the Bankstown firm in the early afternoon of 9 September. 

The raid brings the total number of people charged under the investigation, known as Strike Force Myddleton, to 33.

How the investigation started

Strike Force Myddleton was set up in January 2024 by State Crime Command's Financial Crimes Squad, with assistance from the NSW Crime Commission, to investigate a criminal syndicate targeting Sydney automotive financing companies.

Investigators initially found the syndicate was allegedly using stolen personal information to apply for loans to purchase luxury "ghost cars" that didn't exist.

As the probe expanded, detectives allege the syndicate's reach extended into large-scale personal, business and home loan fraud against multiple financial institutions.

The NSW Crime Commission has restrained roughly $95 million in assets to date.

The accounting firm charges

Detectives allege the three accounting professionals worked closely with the syndicate and exploited their positions to approve and facilitate fraudulent loan applications.

A 46-year-old man, the firm's director, was charged, a 34-year-old man was charged, and a 28-year-old woman was charged.

Both men were refused bail and appeared at Bankstown Local Court on Thursday, 10 September 2026.

The woman was granted conditional bail and is due to appear at Bankstown Local Court on Thursday, 8 October 2026.

ATO Acting Deputy Commissioner Pennie Snowden said professional facilitators undermine trust in the system:

"Professional facilitators who assist others to commit financial crime undermine confidence in Australia's tax and superannuation systems and create an unfair advantage over the vast majority of taxpayers and advisers who do the right thing."

TPB Chair Peter de Cure AM said agents found to have facilitated fraud could face serious regulatory consequences:

"Any agent found to be involved in the facilitation of fraud or other criminal activity can expect the TPB to take strong regulatory action. In appropriate cases that can include removal from the tax profession."

The money mule arrests came first

A week before the accounting firm raid, on 2 September, strike force detectives, with assistance from the Raptor Squad, executed search warrants at homes in Smithfield and Cabramatta West.

Two women, aged 37 and 58, were arrested and taken to Cabramatta Police Station, where police allege they acted as money mules for the syndicate.

The pair were charged over offences including dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception, and were granted conditional bail.

How this case relates to Tranche 2:

The alleged conduct at the centre of this case (accountants accused of using their professional standing to create documents that disguised the proceeds of crime) sits squarely in the gap that Australia's long-delayed "Tranche 2" AML/CTF reforms are designed to close.

Since 2006, Australia's Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act has applied to banks, casinos and remittance providers.

Accountants, lawyers, real estate agents, conveyancers and trust and company service providers, so-called "gatekeeper" professions, were not regulated under the regime until July 1 2026.

AUSTRAC enrolment opened on 31 March 2026, with newly regulated entities required to apply within 28 days of providing a designated service.

The Bankstown case predates those obligations, and the firm at the centre of it was not operating under a Tranche 2 compliance regime at the time of the alleged conduct.

But it illustrates the exact risk regulators say the reforms are meant to address: that professional facilitators, accountants who prepare or certify financial documents, can become a laundering channel precisely because, until now, they've sat outside AUSTRAC's reporting net.

For more information visit: https://www.tpb.gov.au/financial-crimes-squad-charge-accountants-and-money-mules-alleged-involvement-multi-million-dollar-fraud-scheme

Note: All charges are allegations; the matters are before the courts and have not been proven.