A report in the Daily Telegraph accused Ms Rose and AUSTRAC of failing to refer suspicious matter reports provided to them by Westpac in 2018 to the AFP until shortly before the regulator announced its intention to pursue action against the bank. The report also raised concerns about Ms Rose’s credentials and how she obtained the $500,000 a year position of CEO.
But speaking to ABC’s Insiders program, Minister for Home Affairs Peter Dutton – who presides over AUSTRAC – blasted the accusations, calling them “a hatchet job”.
“Nicole has taken AUSTRAC at an unprecedented level of success not only with the banks, but many of the criminal syndicates that they’re now working on with the ACIC and the Australian Federal Police and their state counterparts as well,” Mr Dutton said.
“The personal attacks on Nicole Rose at a time when she’s going after some pretty big fish, I think is pretty outrageous. I can tell you my experience with Nicole Rose is she’s one of the most exceptional public servants that we have in the Commonwealth.”
Ms Rose came to prominence following AUSTRAC’s landmark enforcement case against Westpac, in which the bank was accused of breaching AML/CTF legislation more than 23 million times.
A small number of those breaches centred on electronic transactions that matched the typography of those associated with child exploitation activity, and at least one user of Westpac’s payment platform was found to have been involved in child abuse.
AUSTRAC has declined to comment on the allegations made in the Daily Telegraph.
