It’s got to be strange when your sibling becomes an online sensation, like when Australian academic Rachael Gunn (a.k.a. Raygun) rocketed to fame during the Olympics last summer for her less-than-stellar performance in breakdancing — a viral event that was compounded by the allegation that she rigged the system to get on the Aussie national team ahead of some more qualified candidates.
Raygun may now know how it feels to be on the other side of that dynamic. Months after everybody had moved on from her brave performance in Paris — and her retirement from competitive breakdancing — Raygun’s brother is the Gunn sibling everyone in Australia is talking about. On Wednesday, Brendan Gunn was charged with a crypto-related crime by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
According to his LinkedIn, Gunn is a director at Mormarkets Pty Ltd, a firm that takes investors’ cash and turns it into crypto or invests it abroad. In the spring of 2020, regulators say that Gunn “dealt with two bank cheques” worth $181,000 Australian dollars (about $115,000 USD). These “cheques” were allegedly the proceeds of a crime. Despite knowing this, they charged, Gunn kept trying to open bank accounts even though bank officials “repeatedly” informed Gunn that they were concerned about these deposits. If that sounds confusing, Australian news outlets are calling this “alleged money laundering” or “money reasonably suspected of being the proceeds of crime.” As it happens, people are also considered innocent until proven guilty in Australia.
Gunn does not appear to have entered a plea, and his next court date is expected on April 29. In addition to his work converting cash to crypto (something that is pretty easy for anyone to do with a service), Gunn also describes himself as a “human-centric” recruiter who “discovers the ‘who’
for exceptional teams.” After his sister’s brush with controversy, he held strong in his support. “You will always be a winner to me,” Gunn wrote on X.
