This special Dateline investigation revealed senior lawyers detailing how to avoid detection when laundering money into Australia and beyond.
SBS Dateline revealed undercover footage showing lawyers from a leading law firm in Papua New Guinea revealing a trail of corruption and influence peddling involving politicians, bureaucrats and lawyers.
The film’s had significant impact in PNG and Australia.
Since airing, the PNG Prime Minister has called for an investigation into money laundering between the countries. The PNG Opposition leader Don Poyle has asked for a royal commission into international money laundering and sought co-operation from Australia, the US, the United Kingdom, Japan, Korea and New Zealand. Senior Australian Government Ministers including Joe Hockey and Julie Bishop, have spoken out condemning money laundering, promising to investigate.
This story was important because of the deep ties between Australia and PNG. Australia provides around half a billion in aid to our Pacific neighbour and yet rumours of corruption at the highest level in the country persist. SBS Dateline was also told the Federal Government and AFP are intentionally turning a blind eye to this illegal behaviour so as not to jeopardise the nations’ agreement to take asylum seekers on Manus island.
Reporter: Meggie Palmer
Producer: Meggie Palmer & Geoff Parish
Organisations involved: NGO Global Witness, SBS Dateline and Fairfax Media
Year: 2015
Language: English
Duration: 15 minutes 23 seconds
Twitter: @datelineSBS @MeggiePalmer