A stash of guns, $2.5m cash and 2kg of meth have been found at a Te Atatu property by police who were called to break up a couple of men fighting with golf clubs.

Customs investigators seized 1.8 million smuggled cigarettes and five rubbish bags stuffed with $2 million in cash.

Police have also restrained multiple properties, luxury cars and bank accounts.

The tax evaded by smuggling the 1.8m cigarettes is almost $1.8m.

Both ANZ and Kiwibank refused to discuss an individual customer, but said they were within their rights to close accounts without explanation.

"We take a number of factors into consideration," an ANZ spokesman said. "We're upfront about it - our rights to end a contractual relationship are set out in our terms and conditions."

Suspects in Australia transferred funds from their companies’ accounts to the bank accounts of companies in New Zealand. The New Zealand companies and the bank accounts were controlled by the Vanuatu-based accountant, who was a signatory to the bank accounts.

The FIU have issued a Suspicious Activity Reporting Guideline to help clarify the obligation to report SARs under the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act 2009 (AML/CFT Act).

The Department of Internal Affairs has received a number of questions from accounting practices seeking clarification on whether activities relating to tax transfers, payments and refunds are captured activities for the purposes of the AML/CFT Act.

Providing a registered office or a business address, a correspondence address, or an administrative address for a company, or a partnership, or for any other legal person or arrangement, unless the office or address is provided solely as an ancillary service to the provision of services not caught by the AML/ CFT Act. 

The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) is aware that lawyers and accountants are seeking clarification on how to meet their CDD obligations under the AML/CFT Act relating to non-clients using their trust accounts. 

This Sector Risk Assessment is the second AML/CFT risk assessment undertaken by the Department of Internal Affairs for reporting entities covered by Phase 1 of the AML/CFT  Act.

The FMA has published an information sheet that explains the conditions for reporting entities whose customers include managing intermediaries and customers of managing intermediaries to be able to rely on the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism (Class Exemptions) Notice 2018.

In Operation Ark, the New Zealand Police investigated a case where drug offenders had engaged an accountant to set up a complex structure of legal entities, including a trust. 

A banned Auckland finance director, convicted of laundering dirty money for a high-profile multi-national drug deal, has applied to have his bankruptcy notice set aside.

When a woman carried a supermarket shopping bag filled with cash into a bank, a teller's suspicions were raised.

An Auckland finance company accused of being involved in an alleged multi-million dollar pyramid scheme has pleaded not guilty to money laundering charges.

A methamphetamine manufacturer and dealer in the Waikato region used an accountant to receive cash from his drug dealing and convert it into various purchases of farm land over a number of years.