Australia's financial crimes authority, AUSTRAC, is investigating the state-owned Perth Mint in a move that could have wide-reaching ramifications, not only for the WA government, but also for taxpayers.

So what is the gold refiner suspected of doing wrong, and what's the possible fallout?

Many people assume the Perth Mint is little more than a tourist attraction or place where commemorative coins are created, but this is far from the full picture.

The Perth Mint is the world's largest producer of newly mined gold. It processes around 10 per cent of annual global gold production, and mints the vast majority of gold mined in Australia.

The Perth Mint's foundations are steeped in WA's gold rush history. It was created at a time when currencies were backed by gold, and mining the precious resource was key to powering Australia's economic growth. But the "gold standard", as it was known, was abandoned globally in the early 1970s.

Thomson Reuters Asia Pacific financial crime expert Nathan Lynch said these days the justification for the state underwriting the mint was "really thin".

"When this was set up the mint wasn't running a massive, commercial safe deposit box," he said.

"I mean, it's the biggest primary producer of mined gold in the world, it's sitting on $6 billion of gold. And if any of that gold goes missing, or is stolen, it has to be paid for by who? Taxpayers."

Technological advances have allowed the mint to reach clients around the world, through an app called GoldPass.

The app allows anyone to trade gold and silver digital certificates - certificates that are backed by physical Perth Mint gold/silver stored in its central bank-grade vaults.

The app also allows investors to choose whether they trade in Australian or US dollars - which could also expose the mint to US regulators, as well as AUSTRAC.

To read the complete article, see:
Why is Australia's financial crimes watchdog investigating the Perth Mint?(https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-09-19/austrac-investigates-perth-mint/101438128)