AUSTRAC launches civil penalty proceedings against Mounties
Allegations include systemic non-compliance with AML/CTF laws.
Australia.- The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) has announced that it has launched civil penalty proceedings against Mount Pritchard District and Community Club (Mounties), for alleged non-compliance with Australia’s anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) laws.
Mounties operates 1,400 gaming machines at ten venues. According to AUSTRAC, it contravened the AML/CTF Act by failing to adopt and maintain an compliant AML CTF programme. AUSTRAC says Mounties’ programme lacked adequate risk assessments and did not include appropriate staff training. It was also not subject to an independent review.
Brendan Thomas, AUSTRAC CEO, said: “Mounties is one of the largest and most profitable club groups in NSW. It owns 10 venues, eight of which operate approximately 1,400 poker machines, and it makes hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue from money gambled on those machines.
“This is a big company with an even bigger responsibility to ensure its clubs are managing the risks that criminals can run dirty money through its gaming machines. AUSTRAC’s 2024 Money Laundering in Australia National Risk Assessment identified pubs and clubs as a medium risk sector, but when those businesses are exposed to cash, especially in circumstances where known money laundering risks are not being managed, the risk increases.”
He added: “A business operating at this scale, in a cash-intensive sector, is exposed to a high degree of money laundering risk. In 2022 for example, the NSW Crime Commission released its Project Islington report which determined that billions of the approximately AU$95bn(US$63.7bn) gambled in NSW poker machines in 2021-22 was likely to be dirty money.”
The matter has been referred to the Federal Court. Court documents will be made available through AUSTRAC’s enforcement actions page once published.
