Wei Wang learns fate over $33m money laundering racket

A man will spend more than two years behind bars for running a sophisticated $33 million money laundering operation.

Wei Wang learned his fate in Melbourne County Court on Thursday after pleading guilty to four counts of handling money suspected to be the proceeds of crime.

He ran a money transfer business in which customers gave him cash which he deposited into bank accounts he had under different names.

Wang gave cash to a money broker, Tao Zhu, to deposit in hundreds of ATMs and then transferred the funds to his clients’ overseas bank accounts in exchange for a commission.

He thought authorities might not notice millions of dollars in cash being deposited into dozens of bank accounts in $10,000 installments, but he was wrong.

Around 1,635 bank deposits were made in 38 different accounts worth more than $12.7 million, between February and October 2021.

He also ran a cryptocurrency remittance operation since April 2021, where more than $16.9 million was laundered.

The Chinese national was arrested in October 2021 and officers found $100,000 in cash in a bag at his home in Blackburn, in Melbourne’s east.

Another $117,000 was discovered in a Gucci box in his car.

“There was a degree of sophistication over a long period of time, his offending ended only when the police arrested him,” Judge Michael Cahill said.

However, he said Wang’s guilty plea showed he was genuinely remorseful for his crime and accepted that he had led “a blameless life” before the crime.

He acknowledged Wang’s anxiety at the prospect of being deported to China after his sentencing.

Judge Cahill sentenced Wang, who was free on bail, to a maximum of three years and nine months in prison.

He must serve two years and six months in prison before being eligible for parole and has already served 70 days of that sentence.