More than $580,000 recouped from an immigration visa fraud scheme has been "forfeited to the Commonwealth" to be redistributed to support crime prevention initiatives.
The Supreme Court of NSW ordered the forfeiture on Monday June 1, after the Central Coast man behind the scheme admitted the money was the proceeds of crimes he committed between about July 2017 and May 2020.
The man, 61, charged applicants between $35,000 and $50,000 to assist with their visa applications, regardless of the application outcome. The investigation also identified the misappropriation of the federal government JobKeeper program, established to support businesses impacted during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The man was sentenced in the NSW District Court on December 18, 2025 to four years' imprisonment, with a non-parole period of two and a half years.
Financial analysis conducted during the investigation identified hundreds of thousands of dollars linked to the suspected offending. This included payments to bank accounts associated with the man suspected to be for his services facilitating applications for immigration visas that contained false information. Some of these proceeds of crime payments were used to acquire other property.
The AFP-led Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce (CACT) took action to restrain and pursue the confiscation of these funds and tainted property on the basis they were reasonably suspected to be the proceeds of the man's offending.
"People who defraud the Commonwealth are directly attacking the integrity of Australia's social and financial systems," AFP Detective Acting Superintendent Colin Hunt said.
"Removing unlawfully obtained property is also critical to disrupting and deterring criminal behaviour and preventing further harm to the community."
The Commonwealth's proceeds of crime laws allow authorities to confiscate criminal assets under a civil standard of proof and can operate independently of any criminal conviction.
A total of $583,146.44 has now been forfeited to the Commonwealth.
