A prominent Canberra lawyer and accountant have been arrested as police raided businesses linked to an alleged money laundering operation.

• A Canberra lawyer and accountant have been arrested for alleged plans to facilitate organised crime
• The pair allegedly discussed using contracts and a business purchase to launder “large quantities of cash”
• Police have seized documents from a law firm, accountancy practice and grocery store

Police executed search warrants at four businesses across the ACT region, seizing “extensive amounts of documents”.
Detective Superintendent Scott Moller said a 47-year-old man and a 54-year-old man had been arrested “for their role in facilitating organised crime in Canberra”.
They have not been charged.
He alleged the pair had met on several occasions to discuss how to “legitimise large quantities of cash”.
“It is alleged that, during those meetings, they discussed how legal contracts and agreements could be used to support a business purchase to facilitate the laundering of proceeds of crime,” Superintendent Moller said.
“Criminal activities are becoming increasingly obscure through new technologies and sophisticated methods.
“As ACT Policing looks to follow the money from organised crime, we must also follow the professional facilitators.”
The arrests follow an eight-month investigation.
“One of the members who has been arrested is part of the legal community and the other is a well-known accountant in Canberra,” Superintendent Moller said.
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Asked whether the investigation was linked to outlaw motorcycle gangs, he would only say the alleged money-laundering plot was related to “organised crime in Canberra”.
However, he said tackling white-collar accomplices was “one way we can limit [bikie gangs’] activity in Canberra, because restricting professional facilitators makes it harder for them to launder their cash”.
The targeted businesses included a law firm in the city, an accountant’s practice in the southern suburb of Farrer, a grocery store in Queanbeyan across the New South Wales border, and an unspecified business in Kingston.
Police said they expected to make further arrests as the investigation continued.