Yesterday (Tuesday) the Australian Financial Intelligence Unit published three documents accompanying its 2024 National Risk Assessments, describing artificial intelligence and virtual assets as new accelerators reshaping money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing.
The release takes place seven weeks before the second tranche obligations under the amended AML/CFT law come into force, sweeping an estimated 80,000 to 90,000 new entities into the AUSTRAC perimeter.
The full breakdown, with charts and methodology, is available on the website FM Intelligence Portal.
The second tranche adds lawyers, accountants and real estate to the AUSTRAC perimeter
The reform brings additional real estate professionals, lawyers, accountants, conveyancing companies, precious metals dealers and virtual asset service providers into the system.
Norton Rose Fulbright estimates that the change adds between 80,000 and 90,000 reporting entities to the approximately 17,000 currently regulated, representing a roughly five-fold expansion.
The expansion builds on years of compliance pressures on existing license categories, including the former AUSTRAC licence Action taken against more than 50 cryptocurrency exchange and remittance providers To report violations
The current reporting entities have complied with the amended AML/CFT law since March 31, while the second tranche’s obligations begin on July 1.
AI joins the money laundering toolkit across the three updates
For the first time, AUSTRAC is treating AI as a comprehensive accelerator rather than a single channel.
The Money Laundering Update lists identity fabrication, creation of forged documents, laundering of fraud proceeds, and structuring of transactions designed to mimic legitimate customer behavior among the AI-enabled methods now in use.
The Proliferation Financing Update identifies four use cases by sanctioned actors: automating shell corporate networks, generating shell entities, producing fraudulent commercial documents, and improving sanctions evasion.
The style corresponds to Sussub identity fraud reportwhich recorded a 180% year-over-year increase in multi-layered fraud combining deepfakes and AI-generated identities.
$2 Billion Theft From Bybit Indicates Cryptocurrency Visibility Gap
AUSTRAC revealed this Actors linked to the DPRK stole more than US$2 billion in cryptocurrencies from Bybit in 2025, describing it as the largest known example of state-linked cryptocurrency revenue generation globally.
The agency said that obligations of virtual asset service providers are concentrated on fiat currencies on and off scale, leaving gaps in visibility for local crypto and decentralized activities, a concern of the Bank for International Settlements. It is also collected on USD stablecoins.
The regulator has acted on similar concerns at home. I ordered Australia Binance Australia appoints external auditor In August 2025, he led audits at Airwallex and MHITS earlier this year, and Revolut Australia fined A$187,800 for late reporting.
Full charts and reviews of risk classification and methodology across all three AUSTRAC updates are available at FM intelligence analysis.
Yesterday (Tuesday) the Australian Financial Intelligence Unit published three documents accompanying its 2024 National Risk Assessments, describing artificial intelligence and virtual assets as new accelerators reshaping money laundering, terrorist financing and proliferation financing.
The release takes place seven weeks before the second tranche obligations under the amended AML/CFT law come into force, sweeping an estimated 80,000 to 90,000 new entities into the AUSTRAC perimeter.
The full breakdown, with charts and methodology, is available on the website FM Intelligence Portal.
The second tranche adds lawyers, accountants and real estate to the AUSTRAC perimeter
The reform brings additional real estate professionals, lawyers, accountants, conveyancing companies, precious metals dealers and virtual asset service providers into the system.
Norton Rose Fulbright estimates that the change adds between 80,000 and 90,000 reporting entities to the approximately 17,000 currently regulated, representing a roughly five-fold expansion.
The expansion builds on years of compliance pressures on existing license categories, including the former AUSTRAC licence Action taken against more than 50 cryptocurrency exchange and remittance providers To report violations
The current reporting entities have complied with the amended AML/CFT law since March 31, while the second tranche’s obligations begin on July 1.
AI joins the money laundering toolkit across the three updates
For the first time, AUSTRAC is treating AI as a comprehensive accelerator rather than a single channel.
The Money Laundering Update lists identity fabrication, creation of forged documents, laundering of fraud proceeds, and structuring of transactions designed to mimic legitimate customer behavior among the AI-enabled methods now in use.
The Proliferation Financing Update identifies four use cases by sanctioned actors: automating shell corporate networks, generating shell entities, producing fraudulent commercial documents, and improving sanctions evasion.
The style corresponds to Sussub identity fraud reportwhich recorded a 180% year-over-year increase in multi-layered fraud combining deepfakes and AI-generated identities.
$2 Billion Theft From Bybit Indicates Cryptocurrency Visibility Gap
AUSTRAC revealed this Actors linked to the DPRK stole more than US$2 billion in cryptocurrencies from Bybit in 2025, describing it as the largest known example of state-linked cryptocurrency revenue generation globally.
The agency said that obligations of virtual asset service providers are concentrated on fiat currencies on and off scale, leaving gaps in visibility for local crypto and decentralized activities, a concern of the Bank for International Settlements. It is also collected on USD stablecoins.
The regulator has acted on similar concerns at home. I ordered Australia Binance Australia appoints external auditor In August 2025, he led audits at Airwallex and MHITS earlier this year, and Revolut Australia fined A$187,800 for late reporting.
Full charts and reviews of risk classification and methodology across all three AUSTRAC updates are available at FM intelligence analysis.
