Sydney ‘fortune-teller’ allegedly ran $70m fraud by telling clients she saw a billionaire in their future

A self-proclaimed fortune-teller and feng shui master who allegedly orchestrated a highly sophisticated $70m money-laundering syndicate across Sydney has been charged.

New South Wales police arrested two women, Anya Phan, 53, and her 25-year-old daughter, Thi Ta, at Dover Heights in Sydney’s east on Wednesday morning.

Phan allegedly exploited vulnerable clients within the Vietnamese community by persuading them to take out financial loans based on her prediction that a “billionaire” would enter their future. The woman then took a share of the loans, police alleged on Thursday.

Police allegedly seized financial documents, mobile phones, electronics, luxury handbags, a 40-gram gold bar worth $10,000 and $6,600 in casino chips.

Investigators will allege Phan ran the fraudulent scheme – estimated to total nearly $70m – with the help of her daughter.

An additional $15m worth of assets was frozen by the NSW Crime Commission, police said.

Addressing reporters on Thursday, Det Supt Gordon Arbinja, commander of the financial crimes squad, said Phan had preyed upon people in financial hardship.

“The 53-year-old has claimed to be a feng shui master and fortune-teller who convinced these vulnerable people to become a mule in the criminal syndicate where they would receive an amount of money, and each time she convinced these people to do these loans, she would pocket at least $150,000 herself,” Arbinja alleged.

Police said they would allege that the victims were “reckless” and “indifferent” to taking out the loans on behalf of the syndicate, adding that several of those alleged mules had been arrested.

“What is also alarming is that this woman was trusted within her community. She arrived in Australia in 2001 and soon after become an Australian citizen,” Arbinja said.

“She has not worked during this time. The repayments on the Dover Heights address alone were $56,000 a month, yet she was receiving disability support payments for over 20 years and was a VIP customer at a Sydney-based casino.

“We [allege] that she has at least laundered over $520,000 in a two-month period alone at this Sydney-based casino. She’s a high roller and very influential amongst her community.”

On one occasion, Phan allegedly laundered $45,000 at the casino in just three hours. She also convinced her daughter to purchase a $5.3m unit at Rose Bay, he said.

Phan was charged with 39 offences, including knowingly directing activities of a criminal group, 19 counts of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception and 13 counts of knowingly dealing with proceeds of crime.

She was refused bail and was scheduled to appear at Downing Centre local court on Thursday. She did not apply for bail and the matter was adjourned until 15 January.

The 25-year-old was charged with offences including two counts of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception and recklessly dealing with proceeds of crime valued at more than $5,000.

She was granted conditional bail to appear in court in January.

The alleged fraud emerged after police investigations into an automotive financing syndicate under Strike Force Myddleton uncovered the alleged use of stolen personal information to apply for loans through financial companies to purchase luxury “ghost cars” that did not exist.

Those January 2024 investigations revealed the syndicate’s operations extended well beyond car financing fraud to large-scale personal, business and home loan fraud against multiple financial institutions, police alleged.

“What began as an investigation into fraudulent car financing has expanded into uncovering one of the most [alleged] sophisticated financial crime syndicates I have seen in my career at the helm of the financial crimes squad,” Arbinja said in a statement.

Police will allege Phan took over as lead of the syndicate while its head was before the courts.

He told reporters about half of the alleged syndicate’s members had been arrested but there were “many more people to arrest”.

“We are going after professional facilitators, we’re going to go after some lawyers. We’re going to look at accountants and we’re looking at property developers,” Arbinja said, with fears the syndicate’s property purchases had artificially raised the value of the property market,\ “especially in the eastern suburbs of Sydney”.

Police said 17 people had previously been charged under Myddleton and they remained before the courts. About $60m in assets was restrained in relation to those charges.