There has been a rise in the number of cybercrimes and fraud schemes across the globe ever since the proliferation of the COVID-19 pandemic. Criminals, in general, are taking advantage of people’s scare, helplessness, and the need for immediate financial assistance and medical supplies among others. Financial crimes such as money laundering and terrorist financing have a favourable situation to thrive at a time when a great number of working people across the globe are confined to their homes and are using digital means to complete their daily tasks.
Being one of the most affected countries from the pandemic, the US has become a victim of several scams and crimes related to COVID-19. In a recent interview, Steven Merrill, head of the FBI’s Financial Crimes Section, discussed scams and crimes related to the pandemic. “Unfortunately, criminals are very opportunistic. They see a vulnerable population out there that they can prey upon. People are scared and looking for help. People are trying to protect themselves and their families,” Merrill said. He added that people who are looking for medical attention and medical equipment and people who may be unemployed and looking for work may be in an “extra level of desperation” right now, forcing them to make emotional decisions that could make them a victim.
Well-adapted fraud schemes
Here is the list of the most prevalent fraud schemes related to COVID-19, according to Merrill.
Government impersonators
In this type of fraud, criminals usually reach out to people through social media, emails, or phone calls pretending them to be government officials. There are also cases where fraudsters are going door-to-door to try to convince victims that they need to provide money for COVID testing, financial relief, or medical equipment, according to Merrill. The criminals may be trying to use phishing or other techniques to hack people’s computers or get their personal information or money.
Fraudulent cures or medical equipment
Fake cures or treatments for the virus are another threat that US is concerned about. These “cures” can be extremely dangerous to people’s health and can even be fatal. Merrill suggests that people should never accept a medical treatment or virus test from anyone other than your doctor, pharmacist, or local health department.
Work-from-home fraud
Work-from-home scams are targeted at people who are at home and out of work due to the COVID-19 situation. Here, criminals contact victims through different channels with job offers and ask for urgent payment in return. In some cases, people are recruited as money mules with the same strategy. Read more about such a money mule scheme.
Investment fraud
As regular investment options suffer from drastic value erosion, people may fall for alternative investment schemes that claim to offer exorbitant returns. One of the most lucrative schemes for criminals is offering an opportunity to invest in a cure or treatment for the virus, according to Merrill. Investors who fall for these get-rich-quick schemes will soon find themselves to be fraud victims.
Rising scams and money laundering concerns
An increasing number of fraud schemes, including the above, will undoubtedly increase money laundering activities. Therefore, banks, governments, and multilateral institutions must be more vigilant and take measures. Many regulators across the globe have realised the challenges that banks and other financial institutions will face in anti-money laundering compliance. Albeit a temporary suspension in the regular supervisory activities, they have instructed financial institutions to stay cautious and suggested certain best practices to counter an expected surge in money laundering operations. Regulators have been stressing on the importance of using modern technology to alleviate the ill effects of the pandemic on financial systems to a great extent.
Read More: 30 Years of FATF
Read More: CFT Compliance in Hong Kong
A recognised, award-winning Regtech, Tookitaki offers machine-learning-powered solutions to financial institutions to build futuristic compliance programs. Our proven transaction monitoring and screening solution, the Anti-Money Laundering Suite (AMLS), will help financial institutions be crisis-ready and continue with their complex AML compliance processes with improved productivity and enhanced risk cover.
Our solution offers the world’s most comprehensive repository of money laundering patterns that we identified from financial institutions and developed in-house with a number of third-party collaborations. Our mammoth library of money laundering patterns will make sure banks don’t miss any suspicious banking activity. Banks can make use of our typologies involving money mules to enable their compliance programs to detect such criminal activity and combat money laundering effectively. Our machine learning models learn from multiple customer interactions and apply ensemble learning techniques to accurately predict customer behaviour. This gives a 360-degree view of the customers and their network of transactions along with incremental actionable insights into anomalous behaviour, helping detect criminal activities faster and audibly.
Book a demo to learn more about our solution.
Experience the most intelligent AML and fraud prevention platform
Experience the most intelligent AML and fraud prevention platform
Experience the most intelligent AML and fraud prevention platform
Top AML Scenarios in ASEAN

The Role of AML Software in Compliance


We’ve received your details and our team will be in touch shortly.
Ready to Streamline Your Anti-Financial Crime Compliance?
Our Thought Leadership Guides
Stablecoins Are Booming. Is Compliance Falling Behind?
Programmable money isn’t a futuristic buzzword anymore — it’s here, and it’s scaling at breakneck speed. In 2024, stablecoin transactions exceeded $27 trillion, surpassing Visa and Mastercard combined. From international remittances to e-commerce, stablecoins are reshaping how money moves across borders.
But there’s a catch: the same features that make stablecoins so powerful — speed, cost efficiency, accessibility — also make them attractive for financial crime. Instant, irreversible, and identity-light transactions have created a compliance challenge unlike any before. For regulators, banks, and fintechs, the question is clear: can compliance scale as fast as stablecoins?

The Rise of Stablecoins: More Than Just Crypto
Stablecoins are digital tokens pegged to a stable asset like the U.S. dollar or euro. Unlike Bitcoin or Ether, they aren’t designed for volatility — they’re designed for utility. That’s why they’ve become the backbone of digital payments and decentralised finance (DeFi).
- Cross-border remittances: Workers abroad can send money home cheaply and instantly.
- Trading and settlements: Exchanges use stablecoins as liquidity anchors.
- Merchant adoption: From small retailers to payment giants like PayPal (with its PYUSD stablecoin launched in 2023), stablecoin rails are entering mainstream commerce.
With global players like USDT (Tether) and USDC (Circle) dominating, and even central banks exploring CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies), it’s clear stablecoins are no longer niche. They are programmable, scalable, and systemically important.
But scale brings scrutiny.
The Compliance Gap: Why Old Tools Don’t Work
Most financial institutions still rely on compliance infrastructure designed decades ago for slower, linear payment systems. Batch settlements, SWIFT messages, and pre-clearing windows gave compliance teams time to check, flag, or stop suspicious activity.
Stablecoins operate on entirely different principles:
- Real-time settlement: Transactions confirm in seconds.
- Pseudonymous wallets: No guaranteed link between a wallet and its true owner.
- DeFi composability: Funds can move through multiple protocols, contracts, and blockchains with no central chokepoint.
- Irreversibility: Once sent, funds can’t be clawed back.
This creates an environment where bad actors can launder funds at the speed of code. Legacy compliance systems — built for yesterday’s risks — simply cannot keep up.
The New Typologies Emerging on Stablecoin Rails
Financial crime doesn’t stand still. It adapts to new rails faster than regulation or compliance can. Here are some typologies unique to stablecoins:
- Money Mule Networks
Organised groups recruit international students or gig workers to act as “cash-out points,” moving illicit funds through stablecoin wallets before converting back to fiat. - Cross-Chain Laundering
Criminals exploit bridges between blockchains (e.g., Ethereum to Tron or Solana) to break traceability, making it harder to follow the money. This tactic was highlighted in multiple reports after North Korea’s Lazarus Group laundered hundreds of millions in stolen crypto across chains. - DeFi Layering
Funds are routed through decentralised exchanges, lending platforms, or automated market makers to mix flows and obscure origins. The U.S. Treasury’s sanctions on Tornado Cash in 2022 marked a watershed moment, underscoring how DeFi mixers can become systemic laundering tools. - Sanctions Evasion
With traditional banking rails restricted, sanctioned entities increasingly turn to stablecoins. The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has flagged stablecoin usage in multiple enforcement actions tied to Russia and other high-risk jurisdictions.
Each of these typologies highlights the speed, complexity, and opacity of stablecoin-based laundering. They don’t look like traditional fiat red flags — they demand new methods of detection.

What Compliance Needs to Look Like for Stablecoins
To match the speed of programmable money, compliance must itself become programmable, adaptive, and dynamic. Static, rule-based systems are insufficient. Instead, compliance must shift to a risk infrastructure that is:
1. Risk-in-Motion Monitoring
Rather than flagging transactions after they settle, monitoring must happen in real time, detecting structuring, layering, and unusual flow patterns as they unfold.
2. Smart Sanctions & Wallet Screening
Name checks aren’t enough. Risk detection must consider wallet metadata, behavioural history, device intelligence, and network analysis to surface high-risk entities hidden behind pseudonyms.
3. Wallet Risk Scoring
A static “high-risk wallet list” doesn’t work in a world where wallets are created and discarded easily. Risk scoring must be dynamic and contextual, combining geolocation, device, transaction history, and counterparties into evolving risk profiles.
This is compliance at the speed of programmable money.
Tookitaki’s FinCense: Building the Trust Layer for Stablecoins
At Tookitaki, we’re not retrofitting legacy tools to fit this new world. We’re building the infrastructure-grade compliance layer programmable money deserves.
Here’s how FinCense powers trust on stablecoin rails:
- Risk-in-Motion Monitoring
Detects structuring, layering, and anomalous flows across chains in real time. - Smart Sanctions & Wallet Screening
Goes beyond simple lists, screening metadata, networks, and behavioural red flags. - Wallet Risk Scoring
Integrates device, location, and transaction intelligence to give every wallet a living, breathing risk profile. - Federated Intelligence from the AFC Ecosystem
Scenarios contributed by 200+ compliance experts worldwide enrich the system with the latest typologies. - Agentic AI for Investigations
Accelerates investigations with an AI copilot, surfacing insights and reducing false positives.
FinCense is modular, composable, and built for the future of programmable finance. Whether you’re a digital asset exchange, fintech, or bank integrating stablecoin rails, it enables you to operate with trust and resilience.
Conclusion: Scaling Trust with Stablecoins
Stablecoins are here to stay. They’re reshaping payments, cross-border transfers, and financial inclusion. But they’re also rewriting the rules of financial crime.
The next phase of growth won’t be defined by speed or accessibility alone — it will be defined by trust. And trust comes from compliance that can move as fast and adapt as dynamically as programmable money itself.
Stablecoins will define the next decade of finance. Whether they become rails for inclusion or loopholes for crime depends on how we build trust today. Tookitaki’s FinCense is here to make that trust possible.

Ferraris, Ghost Cars, and Dirty Money: Inside Australia’s 2025 Barangaroo Laundering Scandal
In July 2025, Sydney’s Barangaroo precinct became the unlikely stage for one of Australia’s most audacious money laundering cases. Beyond the headlines about Ferraris and luxury goods lies a sobering truth: criminals are still exploiting the blind spots in Australia’s financial crime defences.
A Case That Reads Like a Movie Script
On 30 July 2025, Australian police raided properties across Sydney and arrested two men—Bing “Michael” Li, 38, and Yizhe “Tony” He, 34.
Both men were charged with an astonishing 194 fraud-related offences. Li faces 87 charges tied to AUD 12.9 million, while He faces 107 charges tied to about AUD 4 million. Authorities also froze AUD 38 million worth of assets, including Bentleys, Ferraris, designer goods, and property leases.
At the heart of the case was a fraud and laundering scheme that funnelled stolen money into the high-end economy of cars, luxury fashion, and short-term property leases. Investigators dubbed them “ghost cars”—vehicles purchased as a way to obscure illicit funds.
It’s a tale that grabs attention for its glitz, but what really matters is the deeper lesson: Australia still has critical AML blind spots that criminals know how to exploit.

How the Syndicate Operated
The mechanics of the scheme reveal just how calculated it was:
- Rapid loan cycling: The accused are alleged to have obtained loans, often short-term, which were cycled quickly to create complex repayment patterns. This made tracing the origins of funds difficult.
- Luxury asset laundering: The money was used to purchase high-value cars (Ferraris, Bentleys, Mercedes) and designer items from brands like Louis Vuitton. Assets of prestige become a laundering tool, integrating dirty money into seemingly legitimate wealth.
- Property as camouflage: Short-term leases of expensive properties in Barangaroo and other high-end districts provided both a lifestyle cover and another channel to absorb illicit funds.
- Gatekeeper loopholes: Real estate agents, accountants, and luxury dealers in Australia are not yet fully bound by AML/CTF obligations. This gap created the perfect playground for laundering.
What’s striking is not the creativity of the scheme—it’s the simplicity. By targeting sectors without AML scrutiny, the syndicate turned everyday transactions into a pipeline for cleaning millions.
The Regulatory Gap
This case lands at a critical time. For years, Australia has been under pressure from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to extend AML/CTF laws to the so-called “gatekeeper professions”—real estate agents, accountants, lawyers, and dealers in high-value goods.
As of 2025, these obligations are still not fully in place. The expansion is only scheduled to take effect from July 2026. Until then, large swathes of the economy remain outside AUSTRAC’s oversight.
The Barangaroo arrests underscore what critics have long warned: criminals don’t wait for legislation. They are already steps ahead, embedding illicit funds into sectors that regulators have yet to fence off.
For businesses in real estate, luxury retail, and professional services, this case is more than a headline—it’s a wake-up call to prepare now, not later.

Why This Case Matters for Australia
The Barangaroo case isn’t just about two individuals—it highlights systemic vulnerabilities in the Australian financial ecosystem.
- Criminal Adaptation: Syndicates will always pivot to the weakest link. If banks tighten their checks, criminals move to less regulated industries.
- Erosion of Trust: When high-value markets become conduits for laundering, it damages Australia’s reputation as a clean, well-regulated financial hub.
- Compliance Risk: Businesses in these sectors risk being blindsided by new regulations if they don’t start implementing AML controls now.
- Global Implications: With assets like luxury cars and crypto being easy to move or sell internationally, local failures in AML quickly ripple across borders.
This isn’t an isolated story. It’s part of a broader trend where fraud, luxury assets, and regulatory lag intersect to create fertile ground for financial crime.
Lessons for Businesses
For financial institutions, fintechs, and gatekeeper industries, the Barangaroo case offers several practical takeaways:
- Monitor for rapid loan cycling: Short-term loans repaid unusually fast, or loans tied to sudden high-value purchases, should trigger alerts.
- Scrutinise asset purchases: Repeated luxury acquisitions, especially where the source of funds is vague, are classic laundering red flags.
- Don’t rely solely on regulation: Just because AML obligations aren’t mandatory yet doesn’t mean businesses can ignore risk. Voluntary adoption of AML best practices can prevent reputational damage.
- Collaborate cross-sector: Banks, real estate firms, and luxury dealers must share intelligence. Laundering rarely stays within one sector.
- Prepare for 2026: When the law expands, regulators will expect not just compliance but also readiness. Being proactive now can avoid penalties later.
How Tookitaki’s FinCense Can Help
The Barangaroo case demonstrates a truth that regulators and compliance teams already know: criminals are fast, and rules often move too slowly.
This is where FinCense, Tookitaki’s AI-powered compliance platform, makes the difference.
- Scenario-based Monitoring
FinCense doesn’t just look for generic suspicious behaviour—it monitors for specific typologies like “rapid loan cycling leading to high-value asset purchases.” These scenarios mirror real-world cases, allowing institutions to spot laundering patterns early. - Federated Intelligence
FinCense leverages insights from a global compliance community. A laundering method detected in one country can be quickly shared and simulated in others. If the Barangaroo pattern emerged elsewhere, FinCense could help Australian institutions adapt almost immediately. - Agentic AI for Real-Time Detection
Criminal tactics evolve constantly. FinCense’s Agentic AI ensures models don’t go stale—it adapts to new data, learns continuously, and responds to threats as they arise. That means institutions don’t wait months for rule updates; they act in real time. - End-to-End Compliance Coverage
From customer onboarding to transaction monitoring and investigation, FinCense provides a unified platform. For banks, this means capturing anomalies at multiple points, not just after funds have already flowed into cars and luxury handbags.
The result is a system that doesn’t just tick compliance boxes but actively prevents fraud and laundering—protecting both businesses and Australia’s reputation.
The Bigger Picture: Trust and Reputation
Australia has ambitions to strengthen its role as a regional financial hub. But trust is the currency that underpins global finance.
Cases like Barangaroo remind us that even one high-profile lapse can shake investor and customer confidence. With scams and laundering scandals making headlines globally—from Crown Resorts to major online frauds—Australia cannot afford to be reactive.
For businesses, the message is clear: compliance isn’t just about avoiding fines, it’s about protecting your licence to operate. Customers and partners expect vigilance, transparency, and accountability.
Conclusion: A Warning Shot
The Barangaroo “ghost cars and luxury laundering” saga is more than a crime story—it’s a preview of what happens when regulation lags and businesses underestimate financial crime risk.
With AUSTRAC set to extend AML coverage in 2026, industries like real estate and luxury retail must act now. Waiting until the law forces compliance could mean walking straight into reputational disaster.
For financial institutions and businesses alike, the smarter path is to embrace advanced solutions like Tookitaki’s FinCense, which combine scenario-driven intelligence with adaptive AI.
Because at the end of the day, Ferraris and Bentleys may be glamorous—but when they’re bought with dirty money, they carry a far higher cost.

Cracking Down Under: How Australia Is Fighting Back Against Fraud
Fraud in Australia has moved beyond stolen credit cards, today’s threats are smarter, faster, and often one step ahead.
Australia is facing a new wave of financial fraud—complex scams, cyber-enabled deception, and social engineering techniques that prey on trust. From sophisticated investment frauds to deepfake impersonations, criminals are evolving rapidly. And so must our fraud prevention strategies.
This blog explores how fraud is impacting Australia, what new methods criminals are using, and how financial institutions, businesses, and individuals can stay ahead of the game. Whether you're in compliance, fintech, banking, or just a concerned citizen, fraud prevention is everyone’s business.
The Fraud Landscape in Australia: A Wake-Up Call
In 2024 alone, Australians lost over AUD 2.7 billion to scams, according to data from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). The Scamwatch program reported an alarming rise in phishing, investment scams, identity theft, and fake billing.
A few alarming trends:
- Investment scams accounted for over AUD 1.3 billion in losses.
- Business email compromise (BEC) and invoice fraud targeted SMEs.
- Romance and remote access scams exploited personal vulnerability.
- Deepfake scams and AI-generated impersonations are on the rise, particularly targeting executives and finance teams.
The fraud threat has gone digital, cross-border, and real-time. Traditional controls alone are no longer enough.

Why Fraud Prevention Is a National Priority
Fraud isn't just a financial issue—it’s a matter of public trust. When scams go undetected, victims don’t just lose money—they lose faith in financial institutions, government systems, and digital innovation.
Here’s why fraud prevention is now top of mind in Australia:
- Real-time payments mean real-time risks: With the rise of the New Payments Platform (NPP), funds can move across banks instantly. This has increased the urgency to detect and prevent fraud in milliseconds—not days.
- Rise in money mule networks: Criminal groups are exploiting students, gig workers, and the elderly to launder stolen funds.
- Increased regulatory pressure: AUSTRAC and ASIC are putting more pressure on institutions to identify and report suspicious activities more proactively.
Common Fraud Techniques Seen in Australia
Understanding how fraud works is the first step to preventing it. Here are some of the most commonly observed fraud techniques:
a) Business Email Compromise (BEC)
Fraudsters impersonate vendors, CEOs, or finance officers to divert funds through fake invoices or urgent payment requests. This is especially dangerous for SMEs.
b) Investment Scams
Fake trading platforms, crypto Ponzi schemes, and fraudulent real estate investments have tricked thousands. Often, these scams use fake celebrity endorsements or “guaranteed returns” to lure victims.
c) Romance and Sextortion Scams
These scams manipulate victims emotionally, often over weeks or months, before asking for money. Some even involve blackmail using fake or stolen intimate content.
d) Deepfake Impersonation
Using AI-generated voice or video, scammers are impersonating real people to initiate fund transfers or manipulate staff into giving away sensitive information.
e) Synthetic Identity Fraud
Criminals use a blend of real and fake information to create a new, ‘clean’ identity that can bypass onboarding checks at banks and fintechs.

Regulatory Push for Smarter Controls
Regulators in Australia are stepping up their efforts:
- AUSTRAC has introduced updated guidance for transaction monitoring and suspicious matter reporting, pushing institutions to adopt more adaptive, risk-based approaches.
- ASIC is cracking down on investment scams and calling for platforms to implement stricter identity and payment verification systems.
- The ACCC’s National Anti-Scam Centre launched a multi-agency initiative to disrupt scam operations through intelligence sharing and faster response times.
But even regulators acknowledge: compliance alone won't stop fraud. Prevention needs smarter tools, better collaboration, and real-time intelligence.
A New Approach: Proactive, AI-Powered Fraud Prevention
The most forward-thinking banks and fintechs in Australia are moving from reactive to proactive fraud prevention. Here's what the shift looks like:
✅ Real-Time Transaction Monitoring
Instead of relying on static rules, modern systems use machine learning to flag suspicious behaviour—like unusual payment patterns, high-risk geographies, or rapid account-to-account transfers.
✅ Behavioural Analytics
Understanding what ‘normal’ looks like for each user helps detect anomalies fast—like a customer suddenly logging in from a new country or making a large transfer outside business hours.
✅ AI Copilots for Investigators
Tools like AI-powered investigation assistants can help analysts triage alerts faster, recommend next steps, and even generate narrative summaries for suspicious activity reports.
✅ Community Intelligence
Fraudsters often reuse tactics across institutions. Platforms like Tookitaki’s AFC Ecosystem allow banks to share anonymised fraud scenarios and red flags—so everyone can learn and defend together.
✅ Federated Learning Models
These models allow banks to collaborate on fraud detection algorithms without sharing customer data—bringing the power of collective intelligence without compromising privacy.
Fraud Prevention Best Practices for Australian Institutions
Whether you're a Tier-1 bank or a growing fintech, these best practices are critical:
- Prioritise real-time fraud detection tools that work across payment channels and digital platforms.
- Train your teams—fraudsters are exploiting human error more than technical flaws.
- Invest in explainable AI to build trust with regulators and internal stakeholders.
- Use layered defences: Combine transaction monitoring, device fingerprinting, behavioural analytics, and biometric verification.
- Collaborate across the ecosystem—join industry platforms, share intel, and learn from others.
How Tookitaki Supports Fraud Prevention in Australia
Tookitaki is helping Australian institutions stay ahead of fraud by combining advanced AI with collective intelligence. Our FinCense platform offers:
- End-to-end fraud and AML detection across transactions, customers, and devices.
- Federated learning that enables risk detection with insights contributed by a global network of financial crime experts.
- Smart investigation tools to reduce alert fatigue and speed up response times.
The Role of Public Awareness in Prevention
It’s not just institutions—customers play a key role too. Public campaigns like Scamwatch, educational content from banks, and media coverage of fraud trends all contribute to prevention.
Simple actions like verifying sender details, avoiding suspicious links, and reporting scam attempts can go a long way. In the fight against fraud, awareness is the first line of defence.
Conclusion: Staying Ahead in a Smarter Fraud Era
Fraud prevention in Australia can no longer be treated as an afterthought. The threats are too advanced, too fast, and too costly.
With the right mix of technology, collaboration, and education, Australia can stay ahead of financial criminals—and turn the tide in favour of consumers, businesses, and institutions alike.
Whether it’s adopting AI tools, sharing threat insights, or empowering individuals, fraud prevention is no longer optional. It’s the new frontline of trust.

Stablecoins Are Booming. Is Compliance Falling Behind?
Programmable money isn’t a futuristic buzzword anymore — it’s here, and it’s scaling at breakneck speed. In 2024, stablecoin transactions exceeded $27 trillion, surpassing Visa and Mastercard combined. From international remittances to e-commerce, stablecoins are reshaping how money moves across borders.
But there’s a catch: the same features that make stablecoins so powerful — speed, cost efficiency, accessibility — also make them attractive for financial crime. Instant, irreversible, and identity-light transactions have created a compliance challenge unlike any before. For regulators, banks, and fintechs, the question is clear: can compliance scale as fast as stablecoins?

The Rise of Stablecoins: More Than Just Crypto
Stablecoins are digital tokens pegged to a stable asset like the U.S. dollar or euro. Unlike Bitcoin or Ether, they aren’t designed for volatility — they’re designed for utility. That’s why they’ve become the backbone of digital payments and decentralised finance (DeFi).
- Cross-border remittances: Workers abroad can send money home cheaply and instantly.
- Trading and settlements: Exchanges use stablecoins as liquidity anchors.
- Merchant adoption: From small retailers to payment giants like PayPal (with its PYUSD stablecoin launched in 2023), stablecoin rails are entering mainstream commerce.
With global players like USDT (Tether) and USDC (Circle) dominating, and even central banks exploring CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies), it’s clear stablecoins are no longer niche. They are programmable, scalable, and systemically important.
But scale brings scrutiny.
The Compliance Gap: Why Old Tools Don’t Work
Most financial institutions still rely on compliance infrastructure designed decades ago for slower, linear payment systems. Batch settlements, SWIFT messages, and pre-clearing windows gave compliance teams time to check, flag, or stop suspicious activity.
Stablecoins operate on entirely different principles:
- Real-time settlement: Transactions confirm in seconds.
- Pseudonymous wallets: No guaranteed link between a wallet and its true owner.
- DeFi composability: Funds can move through multiple protocols, contracts, and blockchains with no central chokepoint.
- Irreversibility: Once sent, funds can’t be clawed back.
This creates an environment where bad actors can launder funds at the speed of code. Legacy compliance systems — built for yesterday’s risks — simply cannot keep up.
The New Typologies Emerging on Stablecoin Rails
Financial crime doesn’t stand still. It adapts to new rails faster than regulation or compliance can. Here are some typologies unique to stablecoins:
- Money Mule Networks
Organised groups recruit international students or gig workers to act as “cash-out points,” moving illicit funds through stablecoin wallets before converting back to fiat. - Cross-Chain Laundering
Criminals exploit bridges between blockchains (e.g., Ethereum to Tron or Solana) to break traceability, making it harder to follow the money. This tactic was highlighted in multiple reports after North Korea’s Lazarus Group laundered hundreds of millions in stolen crypto across chains. - DeFi Layering
Funds are routed through decentralised exchanges, lending platforms, or automated market makers to mix flows and obscure origins. The U.S. Treasury’s sanctions on Tornado Cash in 2022 marked a watershed moment, underscoring how DeFi mixers can become systemic laundering tools. - Sanctions Evasion
With traditional banking rails restricted, sanctioned entities increasingly turn to stablecoins. The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has flagged stablecoin usage in multiple enforcement actions tied to Russia and other high-risk jurisdictions.
Each of these typologies highlights the speed, complexity, and opacity of stablecoin-based laundering. They don’t look like traditional fiat red flags — they demand new methods of detection.

What Compliance Needs to Look Like for Stablecoins
To match the speed of programmable money, compliance must itself become programmable, adaptive, and dynamic. Static, rule-based systems are insufficient. Instead, compliance must shift to a risk infrastructure that is:
1. Risk-in-Motion Monitoring
Rather than flagging transactions after they settle, monitoring must happen in real time, detecting structuring, layering, and unusual flow patterns as they unfold.
2. Smart Sanctions & Wallet Screening
Name checks aren’t enough. Risk detection must consider wallet metadata, behavioural history, device intelligence, and network analysis to surface high-risk entities hidden behind pseudonyms.
3. Wallet Risk Scoring
A static “high-risk wallet list” doesn’t work in a world where wallets are created and discarded easily. Risk scoring must be dynamic and contextual, combining geolocation, device, transaction history, and counterparties into evolving risk profiles.
This is compliance at the speed of programmable money.
Tookitaki’s FinCense: Building the Trust Layer for Stablecoins
At Tookitaki, we’re not retrofitting legacy tools to fit this new world. We’re building the infrastructure-grade compliance layer programmable money deserves.
Here’s how FinCense powers trust on stablecoin rails:
- Risk-in-Motion Monitoring
Detects structuring, layering, and anomalous flows across chains in real time. - Smart Sanctions & Wallet Screening
Goes beyond simple lists, screening metadata, networks, and behavioural red flags. - Wallet Risk Scoring
Integrates device, location, and transaction intelligence to give every wallet a living, breathing risk profile. - Federated Intelligence from the AFC Ecosystem
Scenarios contributed by 200+ compliance experts worldwide enrich the system with the latest typologies. - Agentic AI for Investigations
Accelerates investigations with an AI copilot, surfacing insights and reducing false positives.
FinCense is modular, composable, and built for the future of programmable finance. Whether you’re a digital asset exchange, fintech, or bank integrating stablecoin rails, it enables you to operate with trust and resilience.
Conclusion: Scaling Trust with Stablecoins
Stablecoins are here to stay. They’re reshaping payments, cross-border transfers, and financial inclusion. But they’re also rewriting the rules of financial crime.
The next phase of growth won’t be defined by speed or accessibility alone — it will be defined by trust. And trust comes from compliance that can move as fast and adapt as dynamically as programmable money itself.
Stablecoins will define the next decade of finance. Whether they become rails for inclusion or loopholes for crime depends on how we build trust today. Tookitaki’s FinCense is here to make that trust possible.

Ferraris, Ghost Cars, and Dirty Money: Inside Australia’s 2025 Barangaroo Laundering Scandal
In July 2025, Sydney’s Barangaroo precinct became the unlikely stage for one of Australia’s most audacious money laundering cases. Beyond the headlines about Ferraris and luxury goods lies a sobering truth: criminals are still exploiting the blind spots in Australia’s financial crime defences.
A Case That Reads Like a Movie Script
On 30 July 2025, Australian police raided properties across Sydney and arrested two men—Bing “Michael” Li, 38, and Yizhe “Tony” He, 34.
Both men were charged with an astonishing 194 fraud-related offences. Li faces 87 charges tied to AUD 12.9 million, while He faces 107 charges tied to about AUD 4 million. Authorities also froze AUD 38 million worth of assets, including Bentleys, Ferraris, designer goods, and property leases.
At the heart of the case was a fraud and laundering scheme that funnelled stolen money into the high-end economy of cars, luxury fashion, and short-term property leases. Investigators dubbed them “ghost cars”—vehicles purchased as a way to obscure illicit funds.
It’s a tale that grabs attention for its glitz, but what really matters is the deeper lesson: Australia still has critical AML blind spots that criminals know how to exploit.

How the Syndicate Operated
The mechanics of the scheme reveal just how calculated it was:
- Rapid loan cycling: The accused are alleged to have obtained loans, often short-term, which were cycled quickly to create complex repayment patterns. This made tracing the origins of funds difficult.
- Luxury asset laundering: The money was used to purchase high-value cars (Ferraris, Bentleys, Mercedes) and designer items from brands like Louis Vuitton. Assets of prestige become a laundering tool, integrating dirty money into seemingly legitimate wealth.
- Property as camouflage: Short-term leases of expensive properties in Barangaroo and other high-end districts provided both a lifestyle cover and another channel to absorb illicit funds.
- Gatekeeper loopholes: Real estate agents, accountants, and luxury dealers in Australia are not yet fully bound by AML/CTF obligations. This gap created the perfect playground for laundering.
What’s striking is not the creativity of the scheme—it’s the simplicity. By targeting sectors without AML scrutiny, the syndicate turned everyday transactions into a pipeline for cleaning millions.
The Regulatory Gap
This case lands at a critical time. For years, Australia has been under pressure from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) to extend AML/CTF laws to the so-called “gatekeeper professions”—real estate agents, accountants, lawyers, and dealers in high-value goods.
As of 2025, these obligations are still not fully in place. The expansion is only scheduled to take effect from July 2026. Until then, large swathes of the economy remain outside AUSTRAC’s oversight.
The Barangaroo arrests underscore what critics have long warned: criminals don’t wait for legislation. They are already steps ahead, embedding illicit funds into sectors that regulators have yet to fence off.
For businesses in real estate, luxury retail, and professional services, this case is more than a headline—it’s a wake-up call to prepare now, not later.

Why This Case Matters for Australia
The Barangaroo case isn’t just about two individuals—it highlights systemic vulnerabilities in the Australian financial ecosystem.
- Criminal Adaptation: Syndicates will always pivot to the weakest link. If banks tighten their checks, criminals move to less regulated industries.
- Erosion of Trust: When high-value markets become conduits for laundering, it damages Australia’s reputation as a clean, well-regulated financial hub.
- Compliance Risk: Businesses in these sectors risk being blindsided by new regulations if they don’t start implementing AML controls now.
- Global Implications: With assets like luxury cars and crypto being easy to move or sell internationally, local failures in AML quickly ripple across borders.
This isn’t an isolated story. It’s part of a broader trend where fraud, luxury assets, and regulatory lag intersect to create fertile ground for financial crime.
Lessons for Businesses
For financial institutions, fintechs, and gatekeeper industries, the Barangaroo case offers several practical takeaways:
- Monitor for rapid loan cycling: Short-term loans repaid unusually fast, or loans tied to sudden high-value purchases, should trigger alerts.
- Scrutinise asset purchases: Repeated luxury acquisitions, especially where the source of funds is vague, are classic laundering red flags.
- Don’t rely solely on regulation: Just because AML obligations aren’t mandatory yet doesn’t mean businesses can ignore risk. Voluntary adoption of AML best practices can prevent reputational damage.
- Collaborate cross-sector: Banks, real estate firms, and luxury dealers must share intelligence. Laundering rarely stays within one sector.
- Prepare for 2026: When the law expands, regulators will expect not just compliance but also readiness. Being proactive now can avoid penalties later.
How Tookitaki’s FinCense Can Help
The Barangaroo case demonstrates a truth that regulators and compliance teams already know: criminals are fast, and rules often move too slowly.
This is where FinCense, Tookitaki’s AI-powered compliance platform, makes the difference.
- Scenario-based Monitoring
FinCense doesn’t just look for generic suspicious behaviour—it monitors for specific typologies like “rapid loan cycling leading to high-value asset purchases.” These scenarios mirror real-world cases, allowing institutions to spot laundering patterns early. - Federated Intelligence
FinCense leverages insights from a global compliance community. A laundering method detected in one country can be quickly shared and simulated in others. If the Barangaroo pattern emerged elsewhere, FinCense could help Australian institutions adapt almost immediately. - Agentic AI for Real-Time Detection
Criminal tactics evolve constantly. FinCense’s Agentic AI ensures models don’t go stale—it adapts to new data, learns continuously, and responds to threats as they arise. That means institutions don’t wait months for rule updates; they act in real time. - End-to-End Compliance Coverage
From customer onboarding to transaction monitoring and investigation, FinCense provides a unified platform. For banks, this means capturing anomalies at multiple points, not just after funds have already flowed into cars and luxury handbags.
The result is a system that doesn’t just tick compliance boxes but actively prevents fraud and laundering—protecting both businesses and Australia’s reputation.
The Bigger Picture: Trust and Reputation
Australia has ambitions to strengthen its role as a regional financial hub. But trust is the currency that underpins global finance.
Cases like Barangaroo remind us that even one high-profile lapse can shake investor and customer confidence. With scams and laundering scandals making headlines globally—from Crown Resorts to major online frauds—Australia cannot afford to be reactive.
For businesses, the message is clear: compliance isn’t just about avoiding fines, it’s about protecting your licence to operate. Customers and partners expect vigilance, transparency, and accountability.
Conclusion: A Warning Shot
The Barangaroo “ghost cars and luxury laundering” saga is more than a crime story—it’s a preview of what happens when regulation lags and businesses underestimate financial crime risk.
With AUSTRAC set to extend AML coverage in 2026, industries like real estate and luxury retail must act now. Waiting until the law forces compliance could mean walking straight into reputational disaster.
For financial institutions and businesses alike, the smarter path is to embrace advanced solutions like Tookitaki’s FinCense, which combine scenario-driven intelligence with adaptive AI.
Because at the end of the day, Ferraris and Bentleys may be glamorous—but when they’re bought with dirty money, they carry a far higher cost.

Cracking Down Under: How Australia Is Fighting Back Against Fraud
Fraud in Australia has moved beyond stolen credit cards, today’s threats are smarter, faster, and often one step ahead.
Australia is facing a new wave of financial fraud—complex scams, cyber-enabled deception, and social engineering techniques that prey on trust. From sophisticated investment frauds to deepfake impersonations, criminals are evolving rapidly. And so must our fraud prevention strategies.
This blog explores how fraud is impacting Australia, what new methods criminals are using, and how financial institutions, businesses, and individuals can stay ahead of the game. Whether you're in compliance, fintech, banking, or just a concerned citizen, fraud prevention is everyone’s business.
The Fraud Landscape in Australia: A Wake-Up Call
In 2024 alone, Australians lost over AUD 2.7 billion to scams, according to data from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). The Scamwatch program reported an alarming rise in phishing, investment scams, identity theft, and fake billing.
A few alarming trends:
- Investment scams accounted for over AUD 1.3 billion in losses.
- Business email compromise (BEC) and invoice fraud targeted SMEs.
- Romance and remote access scams exploited personal vulnerability.
- Deepfake scams and AI-generated impersonations are on the rise, particularly targeting executives and finance teams.
The fraud threat has gone digital, cross-border, and real-time. Traditional controls alone are no longer enough.

Why Fraud Prevention Is a National Priority
Fraud isn't just a financial issue—it’s a matter of public trust. When scams go undetected, victims don’t just lose money—they lose faith in financial institutions, government systems, and digital innovation.
Here’s why fraud prevention is now top of mind in Australia:
- Real-time payments mean real-time risks: With the rise of the New Payments Platform (NPP), funds can move across banks instantly. This has increased the urgency to detect and prevent fraud in milliseconds—not days.
- Rise in money mule networks: Criminal groups are exploiting students, gig workers, and the elderly to launder stolen funds.
- Increased regulatory pressure: AUSTRAC and ASIC are putting more pressure on institutions to identify and report suspicious activities more proactively.
Common Fraud Techniques Seen in Australia
Understanding how fraud works is the first step to preventing it. Here are some of the most commonly observed fraud techniques:
a) Business Email Compromise (BEC)
Fraudsters impersonate vendors, CEOs, or finance officers to divert funds through fake invoices or urgent payment requests. This is especially dangerous for SMEs.
b) Investment Scams
Fake trading platforms, crypto Ponzi schemes, and fraudulent real estate investments have tricked thousands. Often, these scams use fake celebrity endorsements or “guaranteed returns” to lure victims.
c) Romance and Sextortion Scams
These scams manipulate victims emotionally, often over weeks or months, before asking for money. Some even involve blackmail using fake or stolen intimate content.
d) Deepfake Impersonation
Using AI-generated voice or video, scammers are impersonating real people to initiate fund transfers or manipulate staff into giving away sensitive information.
e) Synthetic Identity Fraud
Criminals use a blend of real and fake information to create a new, ‘clean’ identity that can bypass onboarding checks at banks and fintechs.

Regulatory Push for Smarter Controls
Regulators in Australia are stepping up their efforts:
- AUSTRAC has introduced updated guidance for transaction monitoring and suspicious matter reporting, pushing institutions to adopt more adaptive, risk-based approaches.
- ASIC is cracking down on investment scams and calling for platforms to implement stricter identity and payment verification systems.
- The ACCC’s National Anti-Scam Centre launched a multi-agency initiative to disrupt scam operations through intelligence sharing and faster response times.
But even regulators acknowledge: compliance alone won't stop fraud. Prevention needs smarter tools, better collaboration, and real-time intelligence.
A New Approach: Proactive, AI-Powered Fraud Prevention
The most forward-thinking banks and fintechs in Australia are moving from reactive to proactive fraud prevention. Here's what the shift looks like:
✅ Real-Time Transaction Monitoring
Instead of relying on static rules, modern systems use machine learning to flag suspicious behaviour—like unusual payment patterns, high-risk geographies, or rapid account-to-account transfers.
✅ Behavioural Analytics
Understanding what ‘normal’ looks like for each user helps detect anomalies fast—like a customer suddenly logging in from a new country or making a large transfer outside business hours.
✅ AI Copilots for Investigators
Tools like AI-powered investigation assistants can help analysts triage alerts faster, recommend next steps, and even generate narrative summaries for suspicious activity reports.
✅ Community Intelligence
Fraudsters often reuse tactics across institutions. Platforms like Tookitaki’s AFC Ecosystem allow banks to share anonymised fraud scenarios and red flags—so everyone can learn and defend together.
✅ Federated Learning Models
These models allow banks to collaborate on fraud detection algorithms without sharing customer data—bringing the power of collective intelligence without compromising privacy.
Fraud Prevention Best Practices for Australian Institutions
Whether you're a Tier-1 bank or a growing fintech, these best practices are critical:
- Prioritise real-time fraud detection tools that work across payment channels and digital platforms.
- Train your teams—fraudsters are exploiting human error more than technical flaws.
- Invest in explainable AI to build trust with regulators and internal stakeholders.
- Use layered defences: Combine transaction monitoring, device fingerprinting, behavioural analytics, and biometric verification.
- Collaborate across the ecosystem—join industry platforms, share intel, and learn from others.
How Tookitaki Supports Fraud Prevention in Australia
Tookitaki is helping Australian institutions stay ahead of fraud by combining advanced AI with collective intelligence. Our FinCense platform offers:
- End-to-end fraud and AML detection across transactions, customers, and devices.
- Federated learning that enables risk detection with insights contributed by a global network of financial crime experts.
- Smart investigation tools to reduce alert fatigue and speed up response times.
The Role of Public Awareness in Prevention
It’s not just institutions—customers play a key role too. Public campaigns like Scamwatch, educational content from banks, and media coverage of fraud trends all contribute to prevention.
Simple actions like verifying sender details, avoiding suspicious links, and reporting scam attempts can go a long way. In the fight against fraud, awareness is the first line of defence.
Conclusion: Staying Ahead in a Smarter Fraud Era
Fraud prevention in Australia can no longer be treated as an afterthought. The threats are too advanced, too fast, and too costly.
With the right mix of technology, collaboration, and education, Australia can stay ahead of financial criminals—and turn the tide in favour of consumers, businesses, and institutions alike.
Whether it’s adopting AI tools, sharing threat insights, or empowering individuals, fraud prevention is no longer optional. It’s the new frontline of trust.
