A 72-year-old Melbourne man has been sentenced to 21 months’ suspended imprisonment for falsifying accounts to conceal payments made to Malaysian public officials in a multimillion-dollar property deal.
The County Court of Victoria handed down the sentence on 11 February 2025 after the man pleaded guilty on 29 October 2024 to one count of false accounting.
AFP Acting Commander Bernard Geason said the case highlighted the AFP’s dedication to combating transnational financial crime.
“False accounting is not always immediately apparent,” a/Cmdr Geason said. “Proving that false records were used to hide transnational transactions requires persistence and international cooperation.
“Serious financial crime, including grand corruption, is not victimless. In this case, the true victims were Malaysian taxpayers. The AFP will continue to prosecute criminals who obtain business advantages unlawfully.”
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) launched an investigation in February 2015 into the man, his associated companies, and several Melbourne property developments. The investigation revealed he had acquired three properties near a university campus in Caulfield East, converting them into student hostels through his companies.
In 2013, the completed hostel was sold to a Malaysian government-owned entity for $22.6 million—an inflated price from the original $17.85 million. The AFP found that $4.75 million in payments were made to entities linked to Malaysian public officials or their agents to facilitate the sale. Of that amount, $3.4 million was disguised through false invoices.
The AFP charged the man in July 2020 with falsifying accounting records to gain an advantage, in violation of section 83(1)(a) of the Crimes Act (Vic).
The AFP-led Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce (CACT) later restrained two real estate properties in Victoria—each owned by the offender’s wife and her company—along with bank accounts linked to the family and associated businesses, with a total value of $1.6 million.
The AFP also acknowledged the assistance of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission in the investigation.
As a founding member of the Bribery Prevention Network, the AFP continues to support Australian businesses in managing bribery and corruption risks in both domestic and international markets.
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