Australian business magnate Dr. Andrew Forrest AO (Pictured above) has launched criminal proceedings against Facebook in the Magistrates Court of Western Australia.
Forrest has alleged the tech giant has committed offenses against Australia’s anti-money laundering laws.
This is the first time Facebook has faced criminal charges in Australia.
The three Commonwealth charges allege Facebook was “criminally reckless” in its inability to stop criminals using the platform to send scam advertisements that allegedly defrauded Australian users.
Dr. Forrest has reason to gripe, as these alleged scam advertisements which have appeared on Facebook since March 2019, used his image and claimed to promote cryptocurrency investment schemes.
It’s also alleged that Facebook failed to create controls or a corporate culture that prevented its systems from being used to commit crimes.
This legal action comes after Dr. Forrest asked Facebook to prevent his image from being used by criminals to scam Australian users.
This included an open letter to Mark Zuckerberg in November 2019.
Dr. Forrest said, “I’m doing this because I’m concerned about innocent Australians being scammed through clickbait advertising on social media.”
“I’m committed to ensuring that social media operators don’t allow their sites to be used by criminal syndicates.”
“This action is being taken on behalf of those everyday Australians – Mums and Dads, Grans and Grandads – who work all their lives to gather their savings and to ensure those savings aren’t swindled away by scammers.”
“I’m acting here for Australians, but this is happening all over the world,” he continued.
“I want social media companies to use much more of their vast resources and billions of dollars in annual revenue to protect vulnerable people – the people who are targeted and fall victim to these horrible scams with their hard-earned savings.”
Aside from the criminal charges in Australia, a determined Dr. Forrest has also taken up civil action in the United States to hold Facebook accountable for its alleged role in facilitating and contributing to schemes that defraud victims.
The US civil case against Facebook, which was filed in September 2021, seeks injunctive relief and other remedies and is pending in the Superior Court of California, County of San Mateo (Case No. 21-CIV-05055).
Though in Australia, an initial hearing before the WA Magistrates Court will be held on 28 March, with a committal hearing likely to follow later in 2022.
