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The financial crime watchdog is using bank transaction records and customer data to zero in on 10 suspected domestic paedophiles who paid Australian children to share their own abuse.
Late last year, AUSTRAC convened three “days of action” in which its anti-child abuse experts and analysts sat down with eight banks to combine data and tools to identify suspected purchases of child abuse material.
The group, known as the Fintel Alliance, identified multiple suspicious payments to “vulnerable minors”, AUSTRAC said in a statement.
Ten individuals made payments that indicated purchases of sexual exploitation material self-produced by Australian children, AUSTRAC said in a statement.
The 10 suspects were deemed “significant interest” and their details were shared with the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation, run by the Australian Federal Police, who are now closing the net on the suspects.
“We are putting child sex offenders on notice. If you are buying child sexual exploitation material, we will join the dots and we will refer you to law enforcement,” AUSTRAC chief executive Brendan Thomas said.
The alliance used novel data analysis, but refused to divulge exact methodologies to avoid tipping off offenders who were unwittingly exposed through their financial activity.
This masthead can reveal paedophiles are spreading their activity across multiple Australian banks. The goal is to prevent singular banks from having complete oversight of their transactions.
“Child sexual exploitation isn’t just happening overseas – offenders in our own communities are willing to pay for explicit material produced by vulnerable Australian children,” Thomas said.
“Working side by side, members were able to quickly uncover complex patterns and insights that would have remained hidden without this level of teamwork.”
ANZ, Bendigo Bank, HSBC, Macquarie Bank, NAB and Suncorp all took part in the sharing of information, the third of its kind organised by AUSTRAC.
A previous Fintel meeting in October 2024 allowed the watchdog’s Child Sexual Exploitation Response Team (CSERT) team to identify payments from a man to girls aged 15 to 17 for self-produced material.
The intelligence report led the AFP to the home of a 26-year-old school teacher in December that year, where they seized a mobile phone.
Six months later, he pleaded guilty. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison this week.
The regulator late last year issued warning letters to businesses after discovering suspected payments by paedophiles across multiple online payment platforms.
“AUSTRAC’s regulatory operations team found issues across the sector, with low suspicious matter reporting, poor transaction monitoring and clear failures to identify and manage high-risk customers,” a statement said.
One business, WorldRemit, was ordered to appoint an external auditor. Five more businesses were issued concerns letters, and several more remitters are being investigated.
Money remitters and online payment platforms handle more international fund transfers than the big banks, including to high-risk jurisdictions for child abuse, such as South-East Asia.
Offenders usually make frequent low-value transfers between $10 and $500, applying benign labels such as “school uniform” or “medical costs”. Offenders often have a history of travel to high-risk jurisdictions, AUSTRAC noted.
The AFP last week, in an unrelated case, arrested a high-profile Sydney barrister as he stepped off a plane from Cambodia, alleging he had imported and possessed child abuse material.
Mark Dennis, SC, ran a charity for disadvantaged youngsters in Cambodia, this masthead revealed shortly after his arrest on Tuesday.
“During an examination of the man’s mobile phone, [Australian Border Force] officers located suspected child abuse material. The matter was reported to the AFP for further investigation,” a statement from the agencies read.
“AFP members attended and, on further examination of the device, identified alleged child abuse material and sexualised conversations with and about minors.”
The AFP is investigating Dennis’ actions in Cambodia while trawling through his phones and electronic devices in Sydney. He remains on bail and his online profile was taken down from his former barrister’s chambers following his arrest.
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