Six people have been charged with being part of a sophisticated western Sydney crime syndicate that has defrauded millions of dollars from the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
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The Australian Federal Police says the syndicate has fraudulently claimed more than $10 million since 2017 in NDIS funding and investigations are continuing into the scale and total value of the scam.
In December the AFP, in partnership with the National Disability Insurance Agency, AUSTRAC (Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre) and Services Australia, launched Operation Pegasus to investigate several suspected fraudulent NDIS providers in western Sydney.
With the help of specialist financial intelligence provided by AUSTRAC, police identified a syndicate using three companies to defraud the NDIS.
The AFP says the syndicate:
* obtained NDIS funding for people who do not have a genuine disability
* skimmed NDIS funding from genuine NDIS participants without their knowledge
* conspired with NDIS participants or their families or nominees and other 'sub-contracted' NDIS service providers, to obtain NDIS funds that they are not entitled to receive;
* conspired with NDIS participants or their families or nominees to monetarise their genuine disability
* and over-claimed for services provided to genuine NDIS participants.
Once the payments from the NDIS claims were received by the syndicate, a kickback went back into the pockets of the company operators.
On Tuesday AFP officers raided 11 properties in the Sydney suburbs of Lidcombe, Bass Hill, Monterey, Merrylands, Granville, South Granville, Bankstown, Ryde and the CBD.
Police seized eight kilograms of gold bullion worth about $600,000 as well as about $600,000 in cash and $635,176 in cryptocurrency.
The raids also netted a BMW M3, Audi Q7 and Porsche Cayenne with a combined value of $250,000 as well as "a significant amount of jewellery" and "a small amount of white powder suspected to be border-controlled drugs".
The AFP says more than $2 million in suspected tainted assets were seized, excluding the cash and funds from the syndicate members' bank accounts.
Four men and one woman were arrested and were refused bail before appearing in Central Local Court on Wednesday.
A 37-year-old French man from Ryde was also identified as an alleged associate of the syndicate and charged with separate fraud offences to a value of $31,798. He was given police bail and is expected to appear before court at a later date.
AFP Commander Kirsty Schofield said investigations are ongoing with further arrests anticipated.
"Millions of dollars have allegedly been stolen by this criminal syndicate," she said.
"Funds that have allegedly been spent on flashy vehicles when they could have been redirected to help other NDIS participants, like your mother, grandfather, sister or neighbour.
NDIA Chief Risk Officer Mel Woodburn said the agency was committed to preventing and detecting fraud against the NDIS.
"Fraud is a crime, and the agency will not tolerate the misuse of funds. One dollar fraudulently obtained is one dollar that isn't received by those for whom it was intended - our participants," she said.
Australian Associated Press
