The ringleader of a money laundering scheme which saw a hatted restaurant used to wash drug cash remains behind bars, bringing to an end a sordid but "not very sophisticated" saga.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Over about five years, drug-dealer Mohammed Al-Mofathel, 31, and Courgette operator James Daniel Mussillon cooked the books as part of a marijuana trafficking operation.
The pair were sensationally arrested hours before the ACT would be plunged into COVID-19 lockdown in 2021.
Al-Mofathel's sentence hand-down in the ACT Supreme Court on Monday brings to an end the drug dealer and top chef's highly publicised fall from grace.
It began in 2015, when Al-Mofathel and Mussillon formed a fateful friendship which would result in the upmarket restaurant being used as a money laundering playground.
The total amount laundered by the two co-offenders was between $520,228 and $525,228.
On Monday, Justice David Mossop sentenced Al-Mofathel to seven years and four months behind bars.
The sentence was backdated to take time already spent in custody into account, meaning Al-Mofathel will be eligible for parole in January 2026.
When corrective services escorted the 31-year-old from the room, he waved to supporters before facing the next 20 months in jail.
Al-Mofathel previously pleaded guilty to money laundering as well as perjury, making false evidence, contravening a court order, general dishonesty and trafficking 21.5 kilograms of marijuana.
Over about five years, Mussillon took $361,941 from Al-Mofathel and transferred it back under the pretense of paying wages.
Al-Mofathel's bank records revealed that between March 2018 and August 2021, he received a raft of payments, varying from between $14,590 to $102,779, some described as "Courgette Pay".
During a traffic stop in July 2021, police found Al-Mofathel with five large bags of dried marijuana as well as $14,500 in cash.
The laundering was just the start, with the pair "equally responsible" for lying to the court, providing false documents, and even drawing up a fake loan agreement after a six-figure sum was discovered in the home of fellow restaurateur Wing Hei Leung in March 2021.
During a bail application for Al-Mofathel in June 2020, after he was arrested for unrelated charges, Mussillon gave "gushing" evidence to help the other man secure bail.
Mussillon had told the court "brazen" lies and claimed the drug dealer worked as an operations manager at the upscale restaurant.
On Monday, Justice David Mossop stated the money laundering "was not very sophisticated but occurred over a substantial period".
He stated Al-Mofathel had committed the crimes "for profit".
The judge found a now-iconic white Lamboghini, seized by police after the 2021 arrests, belonged to Al-Mofathel despite documentation which "disguised the true owner".
Justice Mossop described the about 60-page statement of agreed facts as "a sprawling document".
"Much of the document, whilst evidencing suspicious conduct involving many millions of dollars, is not immediately relevant," he said.
The judge found that while Al-Mofathel had "limited involvement" in drawing up the false loan agreement, he had a "significant role in investigating and coordinating" and was "knowingly concerned in the lies" to the court.
Justice Mossop said Al-Mofathel had been born in a refugee camp in Saudi Arabia, after his parents fled from Iraq.
The family then moved to Australia when Al-Mofathel was three years old.
In 2023, Mussillon received a three-year and 11 month prison sentence which was suspended after 12-months behind bars.
He is now released from jail and back in the kitchen.
Leung was previously sentenced to a 12-month intensive correction order for general dishonesty and dealing with proceeds of crime.
