A man will spend more than two years behind bars for running a sophisticated $33 million money laundering operation.
Wei Wang learnt his fate at Melbourne's County Court on Thursday after pleading guilty to four counts of dealing with money suspected to be proceeds of crime.
He ran a money remittance business where customers gave him cash that was deposited into bank accounts he held under different names.
Wang gave a money runner, Tao Zhu, cash to deposit at hundreds of ATMs, then he transferred the funds to his clients' overseas bank accounts in exchange for a commission.
He thought authorities may not notice millions of dollars of cash being deposited into dozens of bank accounts through $10,000 instalments, but he was wrong.
About 1635 bank deposits were made into 38 different accounts worth more than $12.7 million, between February and October 2021.
He also ran a cryptocurrency remittance operation on the side from April 2021, where more than $16.9 million was laundered.
The Chinese national was arrested in October 2021 and officers found $100,000 cash in a bag in his Blackburn home, in Melbourne's east.
Another $117,000 was discovered in a Gucci box in his car.
"There was a degree of sophistication over a lengthy period of time, your offending ended only when police arrested you," Judge Michael Cahill said.
However, he said Wang's guilty plea showed he was genuinely remorseful for his crime and accepted he had led "an otherwise blameless life" before the offending.
He acknowledged Wang's anxiety over the prospect of being deported back to China after his sentence.
Judge Cahill sentenced Wang, who had been on bail, to a maximum of three years and nine months behind bars.
He must serve two years and six months in prison before he will be eligible for parole and has already served 70 days of that sentence.
