WA money laundering mastermind jailed after cleaning nearly $2 million in dirty cash
A Perth businessman fighting a terminal cancer diagnosis has been jailed for a minimum of three years after being found guilty of laundering dirty cash for WA’s criminal underworld.
Geoff Puttick, 66, pleaded not guilty to multiple charges of engaging in transactions that involved money or property that was the proceeds of an offence, and took the matter to trial alongside a number of his clients.
Geoff Puttick was found guilty of money laundering.Credit: Rebecca Peppiatt
During Puttick’s six-week trial earlier this year, the court was told the businessman was the go-to money launderer for a bunch of bikies, churning almost $2 million of dirty cash over a five-year period from his Burswood-based company.
His clients included John Fury, Warren Goedhart, Todd Lange and Shaun Collard, as well as Giovanni Bova and Riley Hutchinson.
All six have served – or will serve – time in prison thanks to Puttick after police traced cash deposits back to them through what was dubbed a “sophisticated” money-laundering scheme.
The court was told Puttick used his company Pre-Paid Legal, or PPL, as a ruse for the enterprise.
During the trial, the court was told police struggled to ascertain exactly what the business did, but prosecutors alleged Puttick got clients to pay a monthly membership for ad-hoc legal advice that he would source, which they used to set up wills, deal with deceased estates, and create company trusts.
Puttick also had multiple off-shoots of that business with names including PPL Security, PPL Investments, and PPL Healthcare Benefits.
His business had originally been legitimate, and while he was laundering dirty money, he also continued with some lawful transactions.
However, Puttick was also taking large quantities of dirty money, which he deposited into multiple accounts at a Victoria Park Commonwealth Bank branch, before giving it back to the same people electronically in the form of a “loan”.
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Puttick was first arrested in December 2020 after he was pulled over by police in Thornlie. He was then taken to a storage unit in Canning Vale where a search warrant revealed a safe containing almost $750,000 in bundles of $50 and $100 notes.
A search of Puttick’s phone also allegedly found encryption software with messaging capabilities that could not be intercepted.
Puttick was at the time a recipient of JobSeeker and Newstart allowances from Centrelink, the court was told, and therefore did not have the legitimate financial capacity to have been in possession of large sums of cash.
The court was told that cash was dirty money, some of which was given to him by outlaw motorcycle gang members for him to cycle through accounts and feed back to them to make it look like they were legitimate funds. Puttick was paid a cut of the proceeds.
In June, two of Puttick’s clients on trial alongside him were found guilty of engaging in transactions that involved money or property that was the proceeds of an offence.
Puttick was sentenced in the District Court of WA on Friday to a term of five years in prison and will be eligible for parole after three.
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