An alleged drug dealer is set to fight allegations he trafficked in cannabis, dealt with nearly $670,000 in proceeds of crime, and laundered illicit cash through one of Canberra's most exclusive restaurants.
Holt man Mohammed Al-Mofathel, 29, also denies perjury, perverting the course of justice, making false evidence and a raft of other offences.
After pleading not guilty to all 14 charges levelled at him, Al-Mofathel appeared in the ACT Magistrates Court via telephone from the Alexander Maconochie Centre on Thursday afternoon.
Defence lawyer Abdul Saddik told the court Al-Mofathel maintained his pleas, and magistrate Glenn Theakston accordingly committed the 29-year-old to the ACT Supreme Court for trial.
Al-Mofathel has been behind bars since his arrest last August, when police restrained more than $1 million worth of assets, including a Lamborghini, linked to him and Courgette owner James Mussillon.
ACT Policing said at the time it would allege Al-Mofathel had dealt significant quantities of cannabis and washed the dirty cash he obtained by having Mussillon clean it through his high-end eatery in Civic.
Court documents reveal the pair allegedly dealt with $516,228 in proceeds of crime between March 2016 and August last year.
Part of their alleged offending is said to involve Al-Mofathel receiving large bank transfers labelled "Courgette Pay" from Mussillon, despite not working for the renowned restaurateur.
Messages between the pair show Mussillon told Al-Mofathel, before the first of these transfers, that he should consider receiving "wages" from Courgette to look "more legit".
The perjury and perverting the course of justice charges relate to an occasion on which Mussillon is accused of lying to a court to help Al-Mofathel obtain bail in a case that has since been finalised.
Mussillon, 50, pleaded guilty in March to six charges, including money laundering, perjury and obtaining property by deception, but the facts surrounding how he committed the offences are yet to be agreed.
The situation is the same in the case of a co-defendant of Mussillon and Al-Mofathel, Wing Hei Leung, who pleaded guilty in July to two charges that included dealing with the proceeds of crime.
That charge was laid after police, who raided Leung's Palmerston home in March 2021, found $153,600 in cash in his bedroom wardrobe.
Al-Mofathel is also accused of dealing with this money, taking the total value of his proceeds of crime charges to $669,828.
Mussillon and Leung, a co-owner of a Dickson restaurant called The Scholar, are both on bail as they await sentencing in the Supreme Court.
Al-Mofathel will remain behind bars on remand ahead of his trial, with his case listed for directions in the superior court on September 15.
