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CMC swoops on
filched funds
A former Queensland Health employee has had assets valued at approximately $12 million restrained by the Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) in a civil confiscation case.
Acting Director of Financial Investigations at the CMC, David Goody said the Commission had obtained several Supreme Court restraining orders over a substantial list of assets identified in the case since 9 December 2011.
The fifth order was obtained last week.
“In this case, we have worked in close collaboration with the Queensland Police Service’s Fraud and Corporate Crime Group to identify and restrain assets that include a New Farm property, accounts with several banks, cars, artworks and other items including jet skis, furniture and a piano,” Mr Goody said.
“The Public Trustee of Queensland has taken possession of all assets restrained to date and the CMC will ultimately seek to forfeit them to the State.
“This is a complex case and should other assets come to light, we will continue to work on behalf of the State to seek relevant restraining orders.”
Mr Goody said under the Criminal Proceeds Confiscation Act 2002, the CMC had responsibility to administer the State’s non-conviction-based civil confiscation scheme.
He said the Act gave the CMC the power to restrain property regardless of whether or not a person had been charged with an offence.
He said in the alleged Queensland Health fraud case, the CMC first received a QPS request for assistance on 9 December and moved to restrain assets the same day.
The alleged offender was arrested on 12 December and charged with fraud the following day.
Mr Goody said in the 2010-11financial year, the CMC’s proceeds of crime team set a new annual record, returning $9.3 million worth of criminally derived assets to the State.
He said this was the highest annual total in the CMC’s history, almost doubling the former record of $5.5 million, set the previous year.
Edition 201, 26 January 2012
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