An attempt to defraud one of Australia’s largest public sector superannuation funds is currently before the courts, according to the Federal Police Commissioner, Mick Keelty.
Mr Keelty used an address to the opening session of the Investment and Financial Services Association annual conference in Brisbane to reveal that the attempted Commonwealth Superannuation Scheme (CSS) fraud had resulted in court action.
Mr Keelty sought to use the fraud as an example of the manner in which the Federal Police had worked with the financial services industry to address white collar crime issues but said he could not go into the fine detail of the case because the matter was currently before a court.
The attempt to defraud the CSS occurred in the run-up to Christmas nearly two years ago when the perpetrators sought to use a paper-based transaction system to transfer money from CSS accounts to illicit offshore accounts.
The attempted fraud was detected by the fund’s custodian which succeeded in having action taken to prevent the fraud succeeding.
Mr Keelty said that the incidence of such crimes was likely to grow and that it was important that the financial services industry developed a strong reporting culture.
He emphasised that the exchange of information between financial institutions and the Federal Police was not prohibited by the Privacy Act in circumstances where it related to the enforcement of criminal law.
