25 February 2008

Mokbel empire stripped of $55m in assets

Police in Victoria have seized 61 properties, cars worth more than $1.5 million and a similar amount in cash in a $55 million grab from the proceeds of Tony Mokbel's criminal empire.

The Herald Sun said on Monday the assets have been stripped from Mokbel, his friends and relatives in the largest such operation on one criminal group in Victoria's history.

The haul, orchestrated by the Purana anti-gangland taskforce, included 61 houses, 36 cars, 11 high-price motorcycles, hundreds of thousands of dollars in jewellery, and more than $1.5 million in cash from bank accounts, the report said.

Police last month confiscated a $500,000 property in which a good friend and former Mokbel lieutenant had been living.

It's thought some of what police seized was being saved for a legal fighting fund for Mokbel, who was arrested in Greece in June last year and is fighting extradition, alleging he cannot get a fair trial in Victoria.

"We're confident we'll find more," Detective Sergeant Jim Coghlan of the Purana taskforce SAID.

"There's more to come."

Det-Sgt Coghlan said the seizures were a blow to Mokbel and his associates.

"What's the point of (being involved in organised crime) if you can't have the cash and the toys that go with it?" he said.

"They don't mind doing five years, but they get pretty upset if you take their house from them."

Det-Sgt Coghlan, who led the unit responsible for the seizures, said the Office of Public Prosecutions' asset confiscation unit and Australian Taxation Office officials were key players in the raids.

Mokbel left Australia in the middle of his trial on cocaine importation charges and was convicted and sentenced in absentia to a minimum of nine years' jail.

He has since been charged with two counts of murder.

msn, Jan 28 2008

No comments: