The Comanchero Connection: How Greed Transformed a Trusted Lawyer into a Money Laundering Machine

How a previously respectable Auckland solicitor's opportunistic greed enabled one of New Zealand's most significant gang money laundering operations

Andrew Neill Simpson should have been the last person to facilitate money laundering for one of New Zealand's most notorious motorcycle gangs. The 42-year-old Auckland lawyer was a father of five with an unblemished criminal record, representing clients through his small legal practice with what colleagues described as professionalism and competence.

Yet between 2018 and 2019, Simpson systematically laundered over NZ$2.2 million in criminal proceeds for the Comanchero motorcycle gang, using his professional expertise to transform drug money into luxury assets whilst exploiting the very trust that made his services valuable to criminals.

Simpson's case offers a stark reminder that money laundering often succeeds not through sophisticated criminal masterminds, but through the calculated opportunism of trusted professionals who choose personal gain over professional duty. For AML compliance officers, his story illuminates how greed can corrupt even the most respected gatekeepers of the financial system.

The Anatomy of Professional Betrayal

Simpson's transformation from trusted solicitor to criminal facilitator didn't happen overnight. His methodology revealed a deliberate abuse of professional knowledge designed to maximise criminal benefit whilst minimising detection risk.

Working from his small Auckland law firm, Simpson created purpose-built trust accounts specifically for money laundering transactions. These weren't accidental oversights or regulatory misunderstandings—they were carefully structured vehicles designed to legitimise criminal proceeds.

The sophistication of his approach became clear through his advice to gang members about avoiding bank reporting thresholds. Simpson instructed his criminal clients to keep individual cash deposits under NZ$10,000, demonstrating intimate knowledge of anti-money laundering regulations and a deliberate intent to circumvent them.

His trust account manipulation involved creating multiple accounts to obscure audit trails, using his professional credibility to legitimise otherwise suspicious transactions, and leveraging legal privilege protections to shield criminal activity from scrutiny.