The financial crimes team in Australia started their investigation into money laundering claims at the Perth Mint in August 2022.
One part of the expansive government mint operates as a custodial depository for individual and institutional investors.
Using a mobile app called GoldPass, anyone can trade gold and silver digital certificates that are backed by physical metals stored in its central bank-grade vaults.
Last year, the Mint reported that it held nearly $6 billion worth of gold and silver bullion on behalf of customers worldwide.
The Mint is accused of failing to properly scrutinize customers, including what some news outlets in Australia are framing as “notorious underworld figures”.
The top government watchdog organization, AUSTRAC, has determined that this could allow suspicious trading activity on the platform and believes that the business breached one of the criminal provisions of the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act, by running an unregistered remittance business.
The Australia law loosely defines a remitter as an organization “that moves money or property on behalf of a client.”
“Anonymous accounts in tax havens may also have allowed high-risk individuals to hide the proceeds of crime, by holding gold in the Perth Mint’s vault.”
AUSTRAC ordered an audit of the Perth Mint operations by an external auditor, requiring a full report on the legal compliance of the organization.
News reports from Australia suggest that the government has ZERO proof of wrongdoing by the Mint, other than the auditors noting two missing “key program elements” related to compliance with the law which represent a “greater risk of non-compliance, and money laundering or terrorist financing activity.”
However, the allegations suggest that this is a government witch-hunt pursuant to violate the privacy rights of anyone holding Perth gold certificates.
The Perth Mint has been the source of other scandals in recent years, such as buying gold from a convicted murderer from Papua New Guinea and holding up to $100 million in assets on behalf of customers of Euro Pacific Bank of Puerto Rico, which saw its assets seized by financial regulators last year.
The government suggests that the mint failed its due-diligence requirements on Euro-Pacific customers and suggests the possibility the refiner sold or may be the custodian of precious metal holdings of “tax cheats, kleptocrats and foreign criminals.”
Euro Pacific Bank, owned by economist Peter Schiff, has been under scrutiny by financial regulators worldwide for being a safe-haven for criminal activity. In February, police in the UK arrested two men suspected of using Euro Pacific accounts to launder money to fund purchases of high value assets such as luxury watches, jewelry and designer handbags and clothing.