Financial Investigations

The Financial Investigations Division (FID) supports the NSW Crime Commission’s functions under the Criminal Assets Recovery Act 1990 (CAR Act).

The NSW Crime Commission sues people in the NSW Supreme Court to recover proceeds of crime that they have either derived from their own criminal activity or other people’s crimes. The process usually involves the NSW Crime Commission making an application for a restraining order to prevent dealings with a defendant’s interests in property or other assets. 

The FID works to maximise realisable confiscation outcomes and resolves the vast majority of proceedings by the court making final orders with the consent of the parties as a result of a negotiated settlement. In recent years, the FID has successfully confiscated cash and assets worth many millions of dollars, returning the proceeds to the state of NSW.

The NSW Crime Commission employs expert forensic accountants and financial analysts who, in conjunction with staff from the Legal Services Division, conduct all of the investigative and legal work associated with the proceedings. Unlike other jurisdictions in Australia, the NSW Crime Commission conducts all aspects of the administration of the CAR Act, from the identification of appropriate persons against whom to commence proceedings through to, in the majority of cases, the recovery of the confiscation order.

As organised criminal groups are usually motivated by money, the FID plays an important role in disrupting their activities. The FID provides expert forensic accounting assistance to the NSW Crime Commission’s Criminal Investigations Division (CID), with teams working together and sharing intelligence.

Confiscation Fact Sheet