Morgan Crawford: Pilbara real estate entrepreneur and star law graduate jailed for money laundering

An entrepreneur who claimed to have made $7 million before his 21st birthday has been jailed after he introduced a debt-laden friend to a money laundering operation. Morgan Crawford, 32, rose through the ranks as a real estate agent, amassing a large property portfolio before becoming a philanthropist. But things began to unravel for the law and arts graduate when his brother’s Pilbara business went bust. Then, in 2020, Crawford introduced Brendan Fletcher-Ham, a friend he considered to be like an older brother, to a group of cashed-up acquaintances he knew from the gym. Fletcher-Ham had accrued a $50,000 debt from Family Court proceedings that left him stressed and needing work. So he used a Perth courier service to deliver $199,950 in cash from a drug syndicate to NSW, sending $238,550 in the same direction days later using $45.70 worth of packing materials bought by Crawford. Both consignments were intercepted by police. And when cops raided Crawford’s Scarborough apartment, they found Fletcher-Ham’s fully charged cypher-encrypted phone hidden under his bed. Crawford later refused to provide the access code to the phone claiming he didn’t know it. Police had installed listening devices in the unit, through which Crawford was heard referring to people “higher up” in the operation. He didn’t receive any personal gain from his involvement, but rather was motivated by a “misguided sense of loyalty” towards his friend since childhood, District Court of WA Judge Mark Ritter said on Wednesday. While he was a step removed from the money laundering, that didn’t reduce his moral culpability, Judge Ritter said. “You knew what Mr Fletcher-Ham was going to do and you physically did something to assist that,” the judge said. A psychologist who provided a report on Crawford to the court wrote that he had told himself that he was not directly involved, which enabled him to justify himself as a “problem solver”. But money laundering was “the lifeblood” of criminal enterprise, and this scheme involved “some sophistication”, planning and premeditation, the judge said. “It is in my mind a reasonably serious example of the offence,” Judge Ritter said. The court was told Crawford — described in character references as a “high achiever” and “a natural leader” — had kept himself busy while out on bail with a jail term looming, starting up a business that automated and simplified administration processes for small business. But he had only taken on enough work to complete before his sentencing on Wednesday. Crawford was handed the same jail term as Fletcher-Ham of two years and three months, and will be eligible for parole after serving half that term. The State had referred to Crawford having “unexplained wealth” related to Bitcoin but Judge Ritter said he did not pay regard to that argument.