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Police restrain assets worth over $500,000 belonging to ADF Private and husband who posed an insider threat to defence force secrets.
The Australian Federal Police have restrained the assets of a pair of Russian-born Australian citizens after they were arrested last month over alleged espionage offences.
The pair – a 40-year-old Army Private in the ADF and her 62-year-old husband – were allegedly engaged in a plot to provide sensitive ADF information to Russian authorities and were arrested on 11 July.
They were each charged with one count of preparing for an espionage offence.
On 2 August, the Queensland Supreme Court made a restraining order over property owned by the pair valued at more than $550,000, and now the AFP-led Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce (CACT) is seeking to confiscate their apartment and savings under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
AFP CACT acting commander Amelia McDonald said the restraining order would “hold people to account” and deny them any ill-gotten assets.
“The AFP has a two-pronged strategy for combating illegal activity – investigation and criminal prosecutions and also confiscating wealth from people who try to operate outside of the law,” acting commander McDonald said in a statement.
Restraining orders like this one and yesterday’s order to seize assets used in a Russian money laundering operation make it illegal to deal with or dispose of assets covered by the restraint.
AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw announced the couple’s arrest last month and outlined the details of the alleged operation.
“We allege the woman was undertaking non-declared travel to Russia whilst she was on long-term leave from the Australian Defence Force. We allege that whilst she was in Russia, she instructed her husband, who remained in Australia, on how to log into her official work account from their Brisbane home,” AFP Commissioner Kershaw told media during a press conference.
“We allege her husband would access requested material and would send it to his wife in Russia. We allege they sought that information with the intention of providing it to Russian authorities. Whether that information was handed over remains a key focus of our investigation.”
The pair could face up to 15 years in prison if found guilty. Mike Burgess, Director-General of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, added that the sentence could be “upgraded to 25 years to life, depending on what we further discover”.
David Hollingworth has been writing about technology for over 20 years, and has worked for a range of print and online titles in his career. He is enjoying getting to grips with cyber security, especially when it lets him talk about Lego.
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