Fraudster ordered to pay back almost £5million of criminal profits

Fraudster: Herbert Charles Austin
National Crime Agency
Hannah Al-Othman17 January 2016
WEST END FINAL

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A specialist money launderer who attempted to "receive and wash" the proceeds of a German bank fraud has been ordered to pay back almost £5million.

Herbert Charles Austin, 66, of Barnsbury Road in Islington committed the crime nearly 15 years ago, and has been ordered to back £4,752,499.27 of his ill-gotten gains.

Austin was sentenced to five years 251 days in December 2011 for being the mastermind of an organised crime group who conspired to launder more than £12m stolen from Commerzbank in 2000.

On Monday a judge ordered that he must pay more than £4.7million of the money back to the bank within 12 months, or he will be sent to prison for six years and the debt, which will accrue interest, will still have to be paid.

The court heard during the hearing how NCA financial investigators followed a complex money trail to prove funds being transferred to the UK were the same funds stolen during the Commerzbank fraud.

Austin had created an international system to receive and wash the stolen money, which exploited offshore companies controlled via trusted associates and faceless administrative nominees.

He then used an additional layer of offshore banks in jurisdictions including the Channel Islands and Cyprus before transferring the funds to accounts in the UK.

Part of Austin's complex money laundering scam involved buying council properties off vulnerable tenants, redeveloping them and selling them on for profit.

In September 2010 £2.5million was restrained in the UK by the High Court in London, while some of the other money was restrained in Spain and Portugal.

NCAs Economic Crime Command Richard Gould said: Austin tried to avoid law enforcement attention by creating an intricate web of financial transactions across the world, meaning that no one authority would have overall responsibility for investigating the crime.

"However, the National Crime Agency’s global reach ensures criminals like Austin cannot and will not exploit international borders."

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