A Southland money mule who transported $100,000 for a money-laundering racket was a small cog in a very big wheel, a court heard today.
The woman, whose interim name suppression continues until a hearing on April 11, appeared for sentence before Judge John Brandts-Giesen in the Invercargill District Court today.
She was sentenced to seven months’ home detention.
Health and personal details of the woman were also suppressed.
The judge said the woman, along with her co-offender, was a money mule who took $100,000 which had been raised from drug dealing to Christchurch in a supermarket shopping bag to deliver it to two key players in the money-laundering operation.
The summary of facts says the main player in the police-coined “Operation Brooking” ran an informal and unregistered Bitcoin trading operation throughout New Zealand between 2015 and 2020, providing a cryptocurrency trading service and a money-remitting service. He would also use the money to purchase high-value assets.
The services were used by people who had obtained money by illegal means.
The New Zealand Herald reported in October 2020 millions of dollars of high-end assets were seized in Auckland as part of the operation.
The Southland woman admitted receiving the money from an unidentified third party then transported the money on May 26, 2020 with her co-offender to Christchurch Airport where it was handed to two main players in the money laundering ring.
At 9.55pm that day, the Southland pair were arrested in Timaru.
The two men had flown from Auckland to collect it and were caught after police executed a covert search warrant on a Cook Strait ferry on May 27, 2020 and found the money in a rental car the Auckland pair were travelling in.
"Approximately $NZ100,000 cash was located inside the bag in bundles of $20 bank notes (held together with tape) and $50 bank notes (held together with rubber bands)," the summary says.
Judge Brandts-Giesen said in court today nothing was known about the gains the woman and her co-offender made from the transaction but he did not imagine anyone would put their liberty at risk for no reward.
They were not significant players in the scheme however he said without receivers there would not be thieves.
Defence counsel Scott Williamson said stressors in the woman’s life had led to this offending.
"(The defendant is) one small cog in a much bigger wheel but the wheel is a big one and I have to accept that.
"Without the small cogs, the big wheel wouldn’t work."
