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A former Western Australia-based lawyer is set to be imprisoned after being found guilty of attempting to obstruct the course of justice, via encrypted communications with an outlaw bikie gang.
Editor’s note: This story first appeared in Lawyers Weekly’s sister brand, Cyber Daily.
A 32-year-old Perth man has been sentenced to a lengthy jail term, becoming the latest of more than 60 individuals jailed in relation to the use of the AN0M encrypted messaging application.
The former lawyer, named by Western Australia media as Ted Dobson, pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to obstruct the course of justice in relation to a judicial power and two counts of failing to comply with an order obtained under section 3LA(2) of the Crimes Act 1914 following his arrest in June 2021 as part of the Australian Federal Police’s Operation Ironside.
AFP Detective Superintendent Peter Chwal said Operation Ironside’s disruption of the encrypted messaging network was a significant blow to transnational serious organised crime groups, both here in Australia and abroad.
“Operation Ironside has severely disrupted organised crime in Australia and ensured those who aid and abet criminal networks are held to account,” Superintendent Chwal said in a 17 July statement.
“The success of Operation Ironside is a testament to the strength and commitment of our partnerships with the FBI and other domestic and international law enforcement agencies, collaborating to combat complex organised crime networks operating across multiple countries.”
Operation Ironside was a joint law enforcement campaign based around the AN0M app, which was operated by the United States’ FBI and widely used by criminal groups who assumed the application, which was built into purpose-built mobile phones and then monitored by the AFP and FBI.
The operation ran between 2018 and 2021 and, as of August 2024, had led to 392 arrests and the seizure of more than $58 million in cryptocurrency.
In the case of the former lawyer, he worked at a legal practice whose clients frequently included members of the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang. The man, who lived in the suburb of Leederville, was observed sending and receiving “several thousand” messages to the bikies via the encrypted app between March and June 2021.
The messages informed the criminals of police operations and often involved the movements of millions of dollars in criminal proceeds.
The AFP conducted a search of the man’s property prior to his 2021 arrest and seized two AN0M devices.
The Leederville man was sentenced to four years and four months’ imprisonment, with a non-parole term of two years and two months.
