One might say international scams run in the family. Brendan Gunn, the brother of Australian breakdancing Olympian Rachael Gunn, AKA Raygun, just received a one-year prison sentence for his role in an international cryptocurrency scam.
Brendan Gunn, a former finance director, admitted to handling more than $180,000 while it was “reasonable to suspect those funds were the proceeds from a crime” earlier this year. Investigators believe the money came from an offshore cryptocurrency investment fraud that preyed on Australians.
The Local Court of New South Wales gave Gunn a maximum term of 12 months in prison, but authorities released him immediately after he signed a $3,000 recognizance requiring him to not break any laws for 12 months.
“Gunn ignored several clear warnings, including customer complaints made to Mormarkets’ various Australian banks, that the money moving through Mormarkets’ accounts was linked to suspected scam activity,” said ASIC chair Sarah Court. “By continuing to deal with those funds, he helped suspected international scammers move money taken from Australians.”
According to Investor Daily, Gunn was a director of Mormarkets, which accepted deposits for cryptocurrencies and other alleged investments from Australians starting in December 2018.
Mormarkets opened twenty-two bank accounts at six different financial institutions between January 2019 and May 2020. On several occasions during that time, banks informed Gunn that they had received complaints from customers claiming fraud or other questionable activities involving money credited to the accounts.
The prison sentence announcement comes at a unique time in Raygun’s life
Brendan Gunn’s prison sentence announcement comes around the same time that Netflix is set to release a documentary titled Untold Raygun: Breaking Badly. However, Gunn’s attorneys prohibited the use of the term “Raygun” and Gunn’s kangaroo-like dance move because, according to them, she owns them as her intellectual property.
“Untold Raygun: Breaking Badly takes viewers inside the rise, fall, and reinvention of polarizing figure Rachael “Raygun” Gunn — the academic and competitive breakdancer who ignited a global firestorm following her 2024 Olympic debut.,” the documentary description reads. “But as her performance at the games went viral overnight, so did an avalanche of memes, misinformation, and conspiracy theories questioning how she ever got there.”
Rachael Gunn famously did not score a single point from the judges in any of her three breaking battles at the 2024 Summer Olympics, losing 18–0 in all three rounds. Somehow, despite her comical performance, Raygun still became ranked the World’s Number One by the World DanceSport Federation in September 2024.
After facing much criticism for her performances and the sketchy way she qualified for the Olympics, Gunn announced her retirement from the sport in November 2024.
The documentary’s release follows several more controversial incidents in Rachael Gunn’s life. Comedian Steph Broadbridge had attempted to give a live performance about the dancer in late 2024, but she was forced to cancel before completing a planned trial performance of Raygun: The Musical.
Rachael Gunn also lost her university job in Australia. Macquarie University had employed Raygun as a lecturer in the Department of Media, Communications, Creative Arts, Language, and Literature. However, the Australian Financial Review reported that the university included Gunn’s position in a round of redundancies.
Netflix plans to release Raygun: Breaking Badly on September 1.