Sydney man allegedly scams $3.5 million from Northern Territory Government by fraudulently posing as an authorised contractor

Relevant impacts:  Government Outcomes Impact, Industry Impact, Financial Impact, Business Impact

A Sydney man has been charged with allegedly dealing with $3.5 million in proceeds of crime after a corporate email was fraudulently used to deceive an unidentified Northern Territory government agency. 

On 7 November 2024, the agency reportedly received an email from an individual who they believed to be a contractor from a construction company they were engaged with. In fact, the email had been 'phished' from ANZ in a business email compromise (BEC) incident.

The sender allegedly provided a completed vendor identification form with updated bank details and appeared to carbon-copy email addresses of other individuals from the construction company. The email addresses, purportedly of other employees of the construction company, were fraudulently created to make the scam appear more legitimate. The man allegedly even registered a business to closely resemble the legitimate contractor for the government agency. The government agency then paid $3,583,363 to the fraudulent bank account believing it was linked to the legitimate construction company. 

AFP investigations into the incident occurred the same month the incident took place, after ANZ reported the BEC incident. Inquiries into the phone number linked to the vendor identification form led police to the alleged fraudster. The AFP executed a search warrant at the man’s home on 23 July 2025 and charged him with one count of dealing with proceeds of crime, money worth $1,000,000 or more, contrary to section 400.3(2) of the Criminal Code (Cth).