• Thought Leaders
  • Posts
  • "Has anything suspicious happened in the last five years?"

"Has anything suspicious happened in the last five years?"

Richard Manthel reveals what NZ agents learned the hard way – and why Australian principals need to act now.

Author

Elite Agent Editor
January 17, 2026

THOUGHT LEADERS
REAL ESTATE REIMAGINED

This week: Samantha McLean sits down with Richard Manthel, founder of AML Hub, who helped thousands of Kiwi agents navigate anti-money laundering laws. Now he's turning his attention across the ditch.

Put 50 real estate agents in a room. Ask them one question: has anything unusual happened in the last five years? Something that didn't pass your sniff test?

Half the hands go up.

That's what Richard discovered when New Zealand brought real estate under AML laws in 2019. Agents knew something was off. They just didn't have a framework to address it.

Now it's Australia's turn. July 2026 is when Tranche 2 finally kicks in – nearly two decades after the conversation started. And Richard has seen what happens when agencies leave this to the last minute.

Spoiler: it's not pretty.

The biggest problem wasn't the paperwork. It wasn't the software. It was leadership.

Senior management didn't engage. Agents got away with ignoring it. And businesses built systemic failures into their processes that took years to unpick.

"One of the things about AML is that it's not what you know," Richard says. "It's what you don't know."

Here's the uncomfortable truth: real estate is perfect for moving dirty money. You can shift millions through trust accounts without completing a single sale. Fail at due diligence? The money's already in the country.

Why hit play (30 min):
- The trust account trick: How criminals use failed due diligence to move millions without buying a single property
- The leadership gap: Why NZ's biggest compliance failures started in the boardroom, not the sales floor
- The DIY trap: Why grabbing Oztrac's guidance pack and going it alone creates problems that haunt you for years
- The January deadline: What principals should have locked in before February – and why June is too late

---

Listen on your favourite platform:
- YouTube
- Spotify
- Apple Podcasts

Connect with Richard:
- LinkedIn
- Website

Elite Agent is the definitive platform for ambitious agents and industry players. Thought Leaders is the weekly show where top operators reveal how they’re reinventing real estate. AI-Powered Agents is your playbook for deploying AI that sells homes and scales teams.

ELITE AGENT
🚀 Imagine Potential