Two Canberran criminal lawyers charged with offences associated with money laundering have been publicly named by their colleague, Aulich Civil Law managing partner Peter Woodhouse, following a raid on the Civic law firm on Wednesday 16 December.
Mr Woodhouse said both his colleagues, founding partner Ben Aulich and 35-year-old partner Bridie Harders “have the full support of the firm”, in a blog post published today.
“The allegations will be met and ultimately dealt with in the New Year,” he said.
Mr Woodhouse thanked the “many hundreds” of people who reached out to offer support, and said “from the firm’s perspective, it is business as usual”.
“All solicitors and staff are still working and all your matters are still being dealt with as normal.”
As previously reported, Detective Superintendent Scott Moller said the arrests were part of an eight-month investigation into organised crime in the ACT.
According to the Aulich website, Mr Aulich studied economics and law and was admitted to legal practice in 2000.
Ms Harders has been in practice in Canberra for over eight years, according to the same website, and she graduated from the Australian National University with first-class honours.
She has been a member of the ACT Law Society’s Complaints Committee since 2012, according to her professional profile.
In addition to the arrests of criminal lawyers Mr Aulich and Ms Harders, an unnamed man linked to an accountancy business in Kingston will also face charges.
ACT Policing allege a 47-year-old man facilitated an introduction to a 54-year-old man for the purposes of arranging to legitimise large quantities of cash.
Law enforcement has not provided further information about Ms Harders’ alleged involvement.
After being granted bail on Wednesday, the trio of alleged offenders is set to face court on Monday 21 December.
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