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In short:
Two money launderers have been jailed after laundering more than $60 million in suspected proceeds of crime.
One of the men spent his fortune on luxury items, including designer watches and a Porsche.
What's next?
The pair will spend at least three years in jail, while a third co-offender will be sentenced at a later date.
As a leader of a criminal syndicate, Boliang Liu became rich enough to buy luxury items and keep $913,000 cash in his house.
Liu may have thought he could avoid detection from police, but he could not escape being "lectured" by his father.
Fulai Liu did not think it was wise his son — who declared no taxable income for the year — had traded in an SUV and forked out a further $107,000 to purchase a Porsche 911 Carrera.
"Is that low profile?" Fulai asked in a message on September 7, 2021.
"I deserve a little reward, don't I?" Liu replied.
"Otherwise what's it for, day in and day out here?"
Their cover was blown a month later when Liu and two co-accused, Tao Zhou and Wei Wang, were arrested in a major sting coordinated by Victoria Police, the Australian Crime Intelligence Commission and AUSTRAC.
The group were charged over their involvement in a syndicate that laundered tens of millions of dollars using cryptocurrency, foreign bank accounts and ATMs across Melbourne's east.
When investigators raided the Burwood home where Liu lived, they seized shopping bags filled with money, cash counting machines and numerous credit cards in other people's names.
Officers also seized luxury watches, a Gucci bag, three framed pictures of boxer Mike Tyson, the Porsche, and two four-wheel drives.
Liu and Zhou initially denied any involvement in criminal activity, telling police they were high-stakes poker players.
Launderers dealt with 'eye-watering' sums
On Tuesday, Liu and Zhou were sentenced in the County Court of Victoria after pleading guilty to dealing with proceeds of crime.
Judge Michael Cahill jailed Liu, 37, for five-and-a-half years, while Zhou, 41, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years.
According to court documents, a combined $63 million was laundered by Liu and Zhou in 2020 and 2021.
"The sums you both dealt with are eye-watering," Judge Cahill said.
"Neither of you kept business records of transactions, and the volume of cash you dealt — worth millions of dollars — was grossly disproportionate to your legitimate income."
Prosecutors said Liu, Zhou and Wang took commissions from "customers" by taking their money and transferring it into other bank and cryptocurrency accounts controlled by the syndicate.
The syndicate disguised their customers' involvement by holding the money in dormant bank accounts, which were purchased from people who no longer lived in Australia.
Men set to be deported after sentence
Judge Cahill said the men did not know the source of the money, but appeared "indifferent" to whether they were helping criminals.
Police recorded Liu telling his father, "We don't worry where the shit is coming from. I never asked ... I don't think it's important".
The judge said the group was able to avoid detection from the banks because individual transactions never exceeded $10,000.
The group was discovered by police when Liu spoke with an undercover officer and boasted that he could convert $1 million cash into Bitcoin.
Zhou was also responsible for making fraudulent transactions on more than 250 credit cards from victims based overseas, the court heard.
Judge Cahill described Liu as the leader of the syndicate, while Zhou was a "money runner" who would make hundreds of cash deposits at suburban ATMs, sometimes standing for an hour feeding money into machines.
The third co-accused, Wang, was found to have laundered $33 million and had $16.9 million sitting in a cryptocurrency account at the time of his arrest. He has pleaded guilty and is due to be sentenced at a later date.
Judge Cahill said prior to being caught, Liu and Zhou had no criminal history.
He said it was likely the Chinese nationals would be deported after serving their jail sentences.