Australian police charge 7 with laundering hundreds of millions for Chinese crime syndicate

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Australian authorities have charged seven people with helping launder hundreds of millions of dollars for a Chinese crime syndicate. Police said Thursday the arrests came after a 14-month investigation which involved multiple Australian agencies and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. They said it was the most complex money laundering investigation in the nation’s history. Police said a money remittance chain in Australia with a dozen outlets, the Changjiang Currency Exchange, was being secretly run by the Long River money laundering syndicate. Police said they became suspicious about the company when it expanded during COVID-19 lockdowns in Sydney.