A woman who claims laundering drug money through Bitcoin was just a "mistake" has been barred from providing disability support care.
Grace Jiang Hong Ley had a side gig exchanging Bitcoin for cash when she was approached in April 2020 by an undercover police officer saying he needed help "moving" money.
Communicating by the Wickr handle 'Clever Bee', the then 52-year-old arranged to meet the officer on three separate occasions in April and May when she traded a total of $105,000 for Bitcoin.
The officer mentioned drugs and twice told her the money was from cocaine in conversations recorded by police.
Around that time, Ley was working as an administration manager at Billy Blue Colleges, which is now known as Torrens University.
She pleaded guilty to dealing with the suspected proceeds of crime and acting as an unregistered digital currency provider in October 2022 before being convicted and sentenced.
In May and again in July 2025, she was denied National Disability Insurance Scheme work clearance after the NSW Children's Guardian deemed her a risk to residents.
This decision was upheld on Wednesday with the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal agreeing that her past behaviour presented a danger to anyone put under her care.
"NDIS participants are particularly vulnerable to exploitation and manipulation and may not have the cognitive capacity to identify such conduct and take steps to protect themselves," the tribunal wrote.
Her criminal conduct reflected poorly on her financial integrity - an important characteristic for NDIS workers with access to participants' funds, it added.
Ley also harmed those affected by the illicit drug trade who are often those with disabilities, it found.
The dual Chinese-Australian citizen pushed for clearance, saying she had not posed a risk to NDIS residents despite working in the sector from 2022 to 2024 and would never have taken advantage of anyone.
"I am a person who is always willing to help, and will feel very guilty if I did anything like that," she wrote.
The tribunal found she had shown little insight into her offending, which she put down to carelessness.
"Error is human being, I made mistakes, and I learn a big lesson from experience," she wrote.
Ley pleaded guilty because she was made an offer by prosecutors, rather than because of any remorse, the tribunal found.
She claimed she had not heard the undercover officer talk about drugs and had misheard the word "cocaine" as "coin" which was a term used by cryptocurrency traders.
The tribunal rejected these claims as unconvincing and recently invented.
