Sentencing — money laundering — banks — corruption — Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 s 101 — R v Jiaxin Finance Limited [2020] NZHC 366. The defendant and an associate ran a business that provided money remitting services. The defendant's responsibility was to organise the cash and to deposit them in different bank accounts. The business had no bank accounts in its name other than the one that was represented for a travel business. The cash transactions had been managed so that banks were avoided as banks were not likely to accept money from unlicensed remitters. Bank accounts were opened with third party names and they were usually young and vulnerable. There was also surveillance evidence that the defendant had made deposits. The offending occurred over the course of two years and $123,455,400.30 was deposited into approximately 400 banks. The starting point was 14 months imprisonment; for this offence under the Ant-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act, the maximum sentence was two years' imprisonment and a fine of $300,000. The aggravating factors included the duration, the scale of the offending, use of third parties and the amount of money that was deposited. The structuring of the transactions were deliberate. It was stated by the Court that the banks were not at fault. A mitigating factor was that the defendant was under the direction of his associate. A 25 per cent discount was given for the guilty plea. The defendant was considered to be of previous good character which amounted to a 10 per cent reduction. The term of imprisonment was then reduced to 4.9 months. Due to the short amount of sentencing, the Court found that a sentence other than imprisonment was appropriate. Therefore the Court found that the end sentence that was least restrictive was home detention for two months and 14 days as the defendant had already been subject to restrictive bail conditions. Judgment Date: 11 August 2023.