Hermes handbags, multiple properties and a $24,000 Rolex: Alleged ‘unexplained wealth’ of woman charged with foreign interference

Hard cash, Hermes handbags, multiple properties and a receipt for a Rolex watch worth $24,000 are among the “unexplained wealth” of a woman who has been charged with reckless foreign interference, court documents allege.

The Australian Federal Police (AFP) charged the Chinese national – who is also an Australian permanent resident – last week after search warrants were carried out at Canberra residences.

She has been remanded in custody after being denied bail by the ACT Supreme Court. Police allege she was tasked by China’s Public Security Bureau with spying on an Australian-based Buddhist group Guan Yin Citta.

Court documents released on Monday and originally reported by the ABC and the Australian included a list of items allegedly found in her home, among them at least six Hermes bags, with a receipt showing one of them had cost $30,000, and further handbag boxes which police claimed were “too numerous” to count.

Police claimed they found about $5000 in $100 bills and the receipt for a Rolex. The statement to the court also alleged the woman wholly or partly owned multiple properties and vehicles.

They also reportedly found goods from other luxury brands, including Burberry, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton. Redacted lines did not reveal all the items allegedly found but referred to a receipt for one item worth $400,000, the Australian reported.

Police alleged in the reported documents that the woman had been paid more than $230,223 by the People’s Republic of China since 2017.

The documents claimed the woman – who came to Australia on a higher education visa – had travelled to China, where she had family and held an active passport, on “several occasions in the past ­several years”. She allegedly travelled to a region, Jindong, where she received “taskings” from a spy handler.

The documents revealed she also allegedly received instructions via the encrypted messaging app WeChat. She was allegedly told to infiltrate Guan Yin Citta and collect information on the residential addresses of past leaders in Australia, as well as take photographs of the group’s national offices and the front doors of its associated businesses.

The woman’s bail was denied last week because she was judged to be an international flight risk. Additional police documents alleged when she was arrested, five suitcases were found in her lounge room “consistent with international travel”.

Police claimed that she had warned an “unknown” associate she had packed clothes and intended to leave the country the day after her home was searched, and spent an hour and a half in the Chinese consulate where she was driven the following day.

The woman reportedly told the court last week she had no intention to flee. The AFP alleged her continued communication with Chinese government officials meant evidence risked being destroyed if bail was allowed.

“Due to the involvement of a foreign state, the ability for the ­defendant to be given, or to establish sophisticated or simple but effective covert communication methodologies cannot be discounted,” court documents reportedly read.

“People are not aware of the full extent of the defendant’s ­engagement with PRC government officials and there may be an unknown number of additional persons the defendant could communicate with.”

The woman’s first appearance in the ACT Magistrates Court on August 5 came just days after ASIO boss Mike Burgess sounded the alarm that Australia was increasingly becoming a target of espionage, costing the government more than $12 billion per year.

Last week, AFP Assistant Commissioner Stephen Nutt said the woman’s alleged “covert and deceptive conduct” aimed to collect information on the Buddhist group to support intelligence objectives of China’s Public Security Bureau.

In the documents police said they remain concerned about other victims, as well as other “persons of interest”. If the woman is found guilty, the reckless foreign interference charge carries a maximum sentence of 15 years’ jail.

Guan Yin Citta, which is in the Mahayana Buddhist tradition, has been banned in China. It can practise in Australia, where it promotes fringe beliefs, including that former prime minister Kevin Rudd was a Chinese man in a past life.

The matter will return to court in September. The AFP declined to comment on Monday.

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