A court has set a date for a hearing to test evidence in the case of a Canberra lawyer accused of plotting with an accountant to launder "a wardrobe full of f---ing cash".
Ben Aulich, 50, has pleaded not guilty to a charge alleging he conspired with accountant Michael Anthony Papandrea and an undercover police officer to launder the proceeds of fictitious illegal tobacco importations.
He also denies recruiting Papandrea, who has pleaded not guilty to a conspiracy charge, to engage in criminal activity.
In the ACT Magistrates Court on Monday, defence lawyer Peter Woodhouse, Aulich's business partner, asked for a contested committal hearing date.
A contested committal hearing is designed to test whether there is sufficient evidence for a case to go to trial in a higher court.
Special magistrate Sean Richter scheduled the case for a two-day hearing starting on May 20, 2024.
The case had previously been scheduled for a hearing earlier this year, however, it was vacated because of issues including controversy about the disclosure of documents to defence lawyers.
On Monday, Mr Woodhouse said there were no applications for disclosure and the case was ready to go to a hearing.
The prosecution case is that the undercover police officer, using the name "Alex Torosian", posed as a client of Aulich's self-titled law firm for about eight months in 2020.
"Torosian" covertly recorded numerous conversations, during which he purportedly pretended to be a criminal involved in the importation of illicit cigarettes.
The court has heard "Torosian" indicated he was likely to earn $100,000 per month from the imaginary scheme.
"What it means is you've got a wardrobe full of f---ing cash," Aulich is allegedly recorded telling the undercover officer. "What are you going to do with it?"
Aulich then answered that question, prosecutors claim, by conspiring with "Torosian" and Papandrea to buy a supermarket with which to wash the supposedly tainted cash.
