Sentencing — money laundering — structuring charge — supply of methamphetamine — invoice fraud — sale of unlawfully imported cigarettes — Crimes Act 1961, 243 —Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009, s 101. The defendant had pled guilty to four charges of money laundering and one charge of being a part of a structuring transaction. The charges involved the supply of methamphetamine, invoice fraud and sale of unlawfully imported cigarettes. The structuring charge involved the defendant and an associate depositing $123,455,00 in cash to about 400 banks using different names and third parties. They employed third parties and who were paid $100 for every $100,000 they deposited into a bank. The starting point was three years and nine months imprisonment. The defendant was convicted of rape in China and filed an appeal that was unsuccessful. He served a five year sentence and appealed for the second time but left China before the outcome of the appeal was known. After a search of a website run by the Chinese government, it was confirmed that the defendant had no convictions, therefore the defendant was entitled to a claim credit for previous good character. The defendant had shown remorse, there was a low likelihood the defendant would be involved in this type of offending again and he had done three months of volunteer work. In his cultural report it was shown that the defendant had suffered a hard life and that he was naive and unfamiliar with the legislative difference between China and New Zealand. The reductions added to 50 per cent for the cultural report, remorse and previous good character which reduced the sentence to 22.5 months imprisonment. Further four and a half months was reduced as the defendant spent three years on bail conditions and three weeks remanded in custody. The sentence was reduced down to nine months home detention. The defendant was required to wear electronic monitoring equipment. Judgment Date: 13 September 2023