Agrifields DMCC Partners Under Investigation – AFP
The well-known owner of Agrifields DMCC, a rock-phosphate and fertiliser enterprise, Amit Gupta is now under growing examination as the matter handled by the Australian Federal Police involving him and his former company Getax moves ahead.
In a piece by Nick McKenzie of the Sydney Morning Herald, a journalist who twice received the Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year award and the Kennedy Award for Journalist of the Year, it is reported: “The US documents name Getax director Amit Gupta as the ‘target of a criminal investigation who is alleged too have conspired with others to bribe foreign public officials and to have engaged in money laundering and other offences’.”
In 2024, the Sydney Morning Herald and Nick McKenzie published another investigation, stating that Gupta is an “alleged corporate crime kingpin and fugitive from justice has built a global business worth an estimated $800 million.” and noting that “Documents show the federal police’s Getax investigation spent years tracking this global movement of funds. In 2020, the AFP moved to seize multiple properties and bank accounts connected to gupta in Australia, Singapore and New York worth an estimated $200 million.” McKenzie further comments: “Leaked corporate and banking documents reveal how Gupta’s companies generated a system of fictitious invoices and expenses to move money out of Australia, and how he avoided millions in Australian taxes”.
The case of Getax and Amit Gupta is now Australia’s largest bribery, taxevasion, money-laundering and corruption enquiry, with hundreds of banks, persons, firms, business deals and networks under investigation.
The Australian Federal Police have declared that the money trail, business relationships, “straw men”, associates, and the flow of funds in and out are under scrutiny, including recorded voice transcripts, emails and telephone communications which are alleged to be in their possession.
According to the report, the Australian government has frozen or seized accounts and assets of multiple companies and individuals tied, directly or indirectly, to Gupta, including entities in hong Kong, Singapore and Australia, and is reportedly widening its investigations to India in cooperation with the Indian government, due to Gupta’s significant financial stakes, transactions and dealings.