Euro Pacific Bank, fronted by US financier and celebrity business commentator Peter Schiff, has been proscribed as a “top tier” organised crime threat to Australia because of its suspected use by Australian and international organised crime syndicates.

International enforcement sources have confirmed that Euro Pacific is the target of Operation Atlantis, a sweeping international tax probe by the “J5”, a taskforce made up of the tax chiefs of Australia, the US, UK, the Netherlands and Canada that was set up after the Panama Papers leak.

Euro Pacific’s designation as an Australian Priority Organisation Target means police suspect Euro Pacific poses a grave organised crime threat to Australia.

Euro Pacific marketing materials list the bank’s existing or previous financial partners as Westpac and the West Australian government-owned Perth Mint, raising the possibility that the Australian institutions have facilitated the activities of organised criminals or tax evaders.

Others with Euro Pacific accounts include a Russian cyber criminal wanted by Australian and US authorities for running the world’s biggest cyber malware attack and an Australian suspected of laundering cash for a billion-dollar drug-trafficking syndicate.

Former federal police financial crime expert John Chevis warned that Westpac and the Perth Mint might have inadvertently facilitated tax evasion and money laundering by partnering with the Puerto Rican bank.

Euro Pacific is marketed by some Australian lawyers and accountants because Puerto Rico offers banking secrecy, including not sharing information with the ATO under an international tax treaty.

Many customers of Euro Pacific are advised to create bank accounts using front companies in other tax havens, creating labyrinthine corporate structures that are difficult for police and tax authorities to unwind.

The ongoing Operation Atlantis inquiry also highlights the failure of successive Australian governments to pass laws recommended by the world’s top financial crime taskforce and a bipartisan parliamentary committee which would force Australian lawyers and accountants to report suspicious transactions to authorities