(Bloomberg) — Australia’s assistant treasurer said anti-money laundering rules and the fight against scams are a key focus amid reports that mortgage fraud at Commonwealth Bank of Australia could amount to around A$1 billion ($700 million).
Daniel Mulino spoke at the Australian Financial Review Banking Summit on Monday. The AFR earlier said a Commonwealth Bank-commissioned report signaled loans based on doctored documents across the wider industry could amount to more than the earlier A$1 billion estimate.
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“I suspect that we are not at the bleeding edge,” Mulino said, referring to anti-money laundering laws. In the area of possible fraudulent mortgages, “perhaps more is needed.”
The AFR reported that top banks are working with the financial crimes watchdog to understand the extent of a potential mortgage fraud scandal.
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THE HASHFLARE “CLOUD MINING” PONZI SCHEME (GLOBAL/ESTONIA)
Date: February 13, 2025 (Guilty Pleas) Perpetrators: Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turogin
Case Description: This $577 million cryptocurrency fraud remains one of the largest digital asset scams in history, with major legal developments concluding in 2025. Potapenko and Turogin operated “Hashflare,” which they marketed as a massive cryptocurrency mining operation. Hundreds of thousands of victims worldwide purchased “mining contracts,” believing they were renting hash power to mine Bitcoin. In reality, the duo was running a sophisticated Ponzi scheme.
They created fake customer dashboards that showed “real-time” mining profits, but the money being paid out was simply the capital of newer investors. They laundered the proceeds through shell companies to purchase luxury real estate and a fleet of high-end vehicles. After a massive international investigation involving the FBI and Estonian authorities, the pair agreed to forfeit over $400 million in assets. This case underscores the “Cyber-enabled Fraud” warning issued by the FATF in early 2026: as technology evolves, the scale of fraud moves from local millions to global billions in the blink of an eye.
Link to Original: ACFE – High Profile Fraud of 2025