Indian jailed for 14 months in money laundering case

A 37-year-old Indian-origin taxi driver has been sentenced to 14 months in jail by an Australian court for being anintegral part of a money laundering operation.
Harmeet Singh, was today found guiltyby a County Court jury for carrying a suitcase stacked with an unaccounted amount of 500,000 dollars in his cab three years ago, following two trials.
He had pleaded not guiltyto a charge of dealing with the proceeds of crime in an amount greater than 100,000 dollars and offered topleadguilty to a lesser charge, on the basis he didn't know how much money he was carrying, was rejected by the court.

According to Herald Sun,Singh protested against the verdict in the court statinghe was innocent.
Dismissing his claim that he had no idea what he was carrying on the day of his arrest,Judge Sexton foundhe was an integral part of the money laundering operation.
"I am satisfied your conduct in this offence was not fleeting and not restricted to the seven minutes or less that you were knowingly in possession of the 500,000 dollars," she said.

The incident occured in October 2013 when police pulled him over in a suburb of Ringwood when hewas not carrying any passengers.
Police had spent a week on his tail and knew what they were looking for, the report said adding, that theyfound a suitcase stuffed with 500,000 dollars in cash in his cab.

However, itwas not yet known where themoney had come from, or where it was going.
Singh was taking orders from an associate in India, the report said.
He had collected the money from a US citizenknown as Mendoza, who had travelled to Melbourne for the operation.
After collecting the cash, Singh drove seven minutes to hishome but was intercepted by police in his driveway.
He told them he had collected money for his Indian associate before, but never in such large quantities.