Brisbane couple charged with spying for Russia in alleged attempt to access defence secrets – 12 July 2024
Two Russian-born Australians Kira and Igor Korolev are facing espionage charges after being arrested in suburban Brisbane. AFP commissioner Reece Kershaw said a 40-year-old woman on long-term leave from the Australian defence force and her 62-year-old husband were charged with one count each of preparing for an espionage offence, which could lead to up to 15 years in prison.
Police threat for Jackson – 15 July 2024
WHISTLEBLOWER Kathy Jackson is likely to be referred to Victoria Police for possible crim¬inal prosecution as the Health Services Union amasse misuse of union credit cards, cash, cheques and general accounts exceeding $660,000.
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Westpac wins $15m fruit stand fraud case – 16 July 2024
The owners of a western Sydney fruit stand and their staff fabricated financial records for more than five years to steal $15 million from Westpac. The money was used to expand a Northern Territory farming empire and pay down mortgages on houses in Sydney’s leafy inner-west.
ANZ suspends traders for alleged misconduct amid markets prob – 16 July 2024
Two ANZ traders have been suspended from the bank amid an internal investigation into misconduct within the company’s markets division. The traders were also among those who worked on a $14 billion bond sale for the federal government in April last year, a transaction now the subject of inquiries from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, which is investigating whether the market was manipulated.
Scammers target Australian real estate sales through payment redirection scams – 17 July 2024
Lily lost about $26,000 to scammers when she sold her two-bedroom apartment in southern Sydney. She and her agent, HT Wills Real Estate, were the targets of a payment redirection scam. Cyber fraud investigator Dan Halpin says Australia is a highly profitable target for scammers.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-17/scammers-target-australian-property-sales/104103298
Australia’s greyhound racing industry battles new claims of abuse – 18 July 2024
Greyhound Racing New South Wales (GRNSW) – the epicentre of the sport in the country – is back in the spotlight for alleged abuse, due to the work of one whistleblower. In an explosive report made public by lawmakers, the organisation’s former chief veterinarian has described the industry as a hotbed of “exploitation and suffering”, claiming that dogs are being raced at “barbaric” rates, euthanised without cause, or left to rot in metal cages when they can no longer compete.
MediSecure reveals 12.9 million Australians had personal data stolen in cyber attack earlier this year – 18 July 2024
About 12.9 million Australians had their data stolen in the MediSecure hack earlier this year, the eScripts provider has revealed, placing it among the largest cyber breaches in Australian history. Medisecure’s statement, released recently said they were “unable to identify the specific impacted individuals despite making all reasonable efforts to do so due to the complexity of the data set. Also doing so, would have come at a “substantial cost that MediSecure was not in a financial position to meet”. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-18/medisecure-data-cyber-hack-12-million/104112736
History lessons on union corruption – 18 July 2024
Business demands royal commission into ‘abhorrent’ CFMEU conduct
Australia’s trade unions and construction industry have long been plagued by alleged corruption, which has been the subject of several royal commissions as far back as the 1980s. Successive Labor and Liberal Governments have tried to stamp out corrupt elements of the union movement with seemingly little success. Amid fresh allegations against Australia’s most powerful construction union, the CFMEU, workplace experts say the Federal Government must avoid repeating past mistakes.
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/am/history-lessons-on-union-corruption/104112154
NSW law enforcement watchdog finds senior officer engaged in serious misconduct after crashing police car – 18 July 2024
A senior NSW police officer was charged after crashing his unmarked police car while under the influence of alcohol in May 2023. The NSW law enforcement watchdog found the detective engaged in serious misconduct and was treated “leniently” by his superior. The officer, who cannot be named for legal reasons, has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-18/sydney-police-officer-misconduct-car-crash-watchdog/104113628
Former broker permanently banned following fraud convictions – 18 July 2024
ASIC has permanently banned Aleksandra Frizzell after it was found she dishonestly obtained funds from an employee, clients and people purchasing goods on Facebook Markplace. After pleading guilty to 17 charges – which reportedly resulted in home loan customers losing hundreds of thousands of dollars through mortgage ‘scams’ – Frizzell was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment (with a non-parole period of two years and three months).
Uber Eats has warned of a new scam. Here’s what to watch out for – 8 July 2024
Uber Eats customers have been warned of a new scam circulating on WhatsApp.
Scammers purporting to work for the food delivery platform had contacted customers via the messaging app. The scammers invite message recipients to join a “promotional team” and offer “rewards for liking or bookmarking merchant stores. Australians have filed about 143,000 scam reports and lost nearly $140 million to scams in the year to June, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s Scamwatch service.
Geraldton financial advisor Thomas ‘Graham’ Greenaway jailed for $2.9m Aboriginal trust theft after retrial – 19 July 2024
Thomas “Graham” Greenaway was found guilty of 33 stealing charges relating to taking $2.9 million from the Yugunga-Nya people’s trust while he was trustee. Greenaway was imprisoned, won an appeal in 2022, and in a retrial in May a jury still found him guilty. Greenaway was sentenced to a total of five years and nine months’ imprisonment, which was back dated to July 2023. He will be eligible for parole after two years and nine months.
