Five arrested in probe of $235m rorted from federal agencies including NDIA - ABC News & Headlines – Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Officials are investigating millions of dollars in fraudulent support payments. (Supplied: Australian Federal Police)
Federal police say they have detected $235 million in actual or potential fraud from Commonwealth agencies, including the National Disability Insurance Agency.
Five people have been charged with fraud offences as part of months-long investigations into service providers accused of claiming government money for services they did not deliver.
A number of the investigations have not resulted in arrests, but police are looking into multiple people of interest, including individuals linked to 10 Sydney-based NDIS providers.
Federal investigators have charged five people as part of a probe into $235 million allegedly defrauded from welfare agencies following a series of raids across Australia.
Police allege the five stole government funds from the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), Services Australia, the Department of Veterans' Affairs and the Department of Education by claiming rebates and benefits for services they either did not provide or only partially delivered.
Police raided 26 locations in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, the Central Coast in NSW and rural Queensland over the past three months, seizing digital devices, documents and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, silver bullion and jewellery.
Authorities conduct a search warrant at a NSW property in relation to a suspected $100 million fraud. (Supplied: Australian Federal Police)
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) said the operation involved more than 100 police officers and more than 150 Commonwealth department personnel, with help from the NSW, Queensland, South Australia and Victoria police forces.
AFP Detective Acting Superintendent Stephen Raper said defrauding government agencies amounted to stealing from the taxpayer.
"While the majority do the right thing, there are groups in our country who selfishly rort the system for their own personal gain," he said.
The investigations include a probe into a Sydney-based family day care service. (Supplied: Australian Federal Police)
An NDIA spokesperson said the agency had strengthened its systems to detect suspicious claims earlier.
"NDIS funding is for participant supports, not the pockets of those seeking to exploit the scheme," the spokesperson said.
One of the people charged is a female NDIA employee who allegedly provided 78 NDIS participant records without authorisation to NDIS providers she knew, who in turn profited from NDIS-funded revenue, the AFP said.
Officers in Sydney investigating a suspected NDIS fraud syndicate. (Supplied: Australian Federal Police)
She will face Adelaide Magistrates Court in December accused of abusing public office.
A second alleged offender is a man in rural Victoria who police said took $700,000 from the NDIS over two years by creating two businesses to defraud his own NDIS plan.
The AFP alleges he submitted false invoices for services he claimed to have received, then distributed the funds into personal bank accounts.
Three others charged with fraud were Sydney-based Chinese nationals who allegedly collected Services Australia user details via a phishing scam and then redirected their support payments.
The victims were directed to a fake myGov website where they gave their Centrelink records, the AFP said.
Since March 2025, the group allegedly made more than 3,000 fraudulent transactions, stealing $2.5 million from the federal government.
The trio, all aged in their 20s, have been charged with one count each of dealing in proceeds of crime.
The AFP said its investigations included four other NDIS providers and one NDIS plan manager who allegedly claimed $100 million in funding since 2019.
Officers said they detected money-laundering methods such as ATM cash withdrawals of about $5.4 million, gift card purchases over $1 million, and purchases of gold bullion.
The AFP said no-one had been arrested but investigations into the alleged fraud ring were ongoing.
Investigators have found large amounts of cash during raids of suspected fraudsters. (Supplied: Australian Federal Police)
Another alleged NDIS fraud syndicate is suspected of claiming $6.7 million in financial benefits from bogus claims totalling about $83 million.
No arrests have been made but the AFP said officers had searched two properties in Liverpool and Wakeley in Sydney and there were six people of interest.
