What started as a favour for her then boyfriend, turned into a conviction for money laundering with potential disastrous consequences for her career as an accountant.
In April 2022, Yixuan Sun was convicted but not fined after she pleaded guilty to breaching the Financial Services Providers (Registration and Dispute Resolution) Act. The trial judge was told Sun received a commission from her boyfriend for acting as an intermediary using her WeChat account to broker a cash swap of Chinese RMB50,000 for NZD10,000. Unbeknown to Sun, her boyfriend was under police surveillance as part of a money-laundering investigation. When charged by police for providing unregistered financial services, Sun pleaded guilty and agreed to give evidence against her boyfriend.
The trial judge acknowledged Sun played a very minor role in the money laundering and was at very low risk of reoffending. A discharge without conviction was refused.
On appeal, Sun said she was at risk of losing her job as a management accountant if the conviction remained. Her employer said he was unaware at the time of the trial that she was facing criminal charges. He could not continue to employ her as an accountant if convicted.
Justice Hinton overturned the conviction. Sun was at best very gullible in dealings with her then boyfriend and perhaps over-impressed by his apparent wealth, Justice Hinton said. She instructed that a copy of the court proceedings be forwarded to Chartered Accountants Australia & New Zealand for its information. Criminal convictions are not a bar to registration with CA ANZ as a chartered accountant, but are among the circumstances taken into account.
Sun v. Police – High Court (29.06.22)
22.113