Media gather outside the Pyrmont office of Channel Seven. Credit:Ben Rushton Federal police raided the Pyrmont and Eveleigh offices of Channel Seven as part of a proceeds of crime investigation on Tuesday morning. Officers remained inside the building at 1.30pm. The network is reporting that it is to do with its dealings with Schapelle Corby. An Australian Federal Police spokesman said: "The AFP can confirm it has executed a number of search warrants in Sydney in relation to an ongoing Proceeds of Crime Act matter. As this matter is ongoing it's not appropriate for the AFP to comment further." Twelve AFP officers arrived at the Pyrmont offices about 8.55am. Channel Seven tried to prevent the officers from coming into their Pyrmont office, where the company's executive and corporate arms are located.

The offices of Channel Seven were raided by the AFP this morning. Credit:Tamara Dean The network aired footage of a Channel Seven worker refusing them entry, saying "you are on our premises". Staff proceeded to film police executing the search warrants, which included taking documents and speaking to employees. Schapelle Corby: reported to have signed a $2 million deal with Channel Seven. Credit:Justin McManus In the footage, an AFP officer became angry that Channel Seven staff were filming them.

"There are rules that, umm, allow us to do our duty and the biggest thing in the search warrant is the hindrance of our duty," the officer said. Mike Willesee addresses the media in Bali on Tuesday. Credit:Amilia Rosa Channel Seven reporters tweeted pictures of police inside and outside the network's headquarters. Gus Brusno, who described himself on Twitter as a media student, tweeted: ''Something pretty big is happening #Schapelle Corby wise right now'' followed by a picture 20 minutes later of at least eight black-suited officers gathering in the foyer of a Channel Seven building. Seven reporter Damien Smith tweeted the same picture, saying the AFP officers were ''executing #Schappelle search warrant'' at the Pyrmont building.

An AFP spokeswoman confirmed that more than two warrants were being executed but she would not say where because the operation was ongoing. Police also raided the magazine arm of Seven West Media in Eveleigh and it is believed they searched the office of Kim Wilson, editor of New Idea, which has a rumoured partnership deal with Corby and Sunday Night. They were also filmed asking where the executive producers of Sunday Night are located. If the Corby interview goes ahead, it will be shown on the Sunday Night program. An AFP spokesman said Sunday Night's offices in Paddington had not been raided nor had Seven's offices in North Sydney and Martin Place. However, Channel Seven said it expected the Martin Place premises to be visited by police.

Commercial director Bruce McWilliam told News Corp that documents were handed over last week as part of a Proceeds of Crime production order and Monday's raids were a "gross over-reaction" by "some heavy-handed goon". He said a senior government minister called him to apologise for the raids. Eight days after Willesee swept into the Sentosa villa compound in Seminyak with the Corby entourage, the day Corby was released on parole from Kerobokan prison, the journalist said he had now spoken to Schapelle. "I've been talking with Schapelle and she's in good shape. We've had some very good talks. But we haven't talked about the interview.

"She's suffered in jail, and she's come out with some mental issues which she appears to be dealing with very well. But you can't say if she's good today that she'll be good tomorrow. All I see is good, and I'm hopeful for her sake, even more than ours, that that continues. But she's in pretty good shape now; so I'd be optimistic for her." Willesee said he had not talked to the Corbys "about the interview or business". "I've just been chatting … It was a private conversation, it wasn't anything. But it was interesting." He did not deny that a payment was planned to Corby or a member of her family after the planned interview, but said no payment had yet been made. He also said the $2 million figure that has been widely quoted for the exclusive TV expose was "a lie and a fantasy and should finally be buried".

The attitude of the Indonesian authorities to any interview is crucial, after deputy Justice Minister Denny Indrayana strongly advised the family not to go ahead with an interview, paid or unpaid, because it may cause "restlessness" or "upset" within Indonesia. But Willesee and Seven appear intent on pushing ahead, hoping that what Corby ultimately says in the interview will be accepted by the Indonesian authorities. "We'd be very careful in an interview to see that we didn't breach any understanding that we had with the Indonesian authorities; we'd be very respectful of that," he said. Asked, though, if he or Seven had or was trying to get any kind of "understanding," Willesee said they were not. The Proceeds of Crime Act provides a scheme to ''trace, restrain and confiscate the proceeds of crime against Commonwealth law''.

However, in some circumstances, it can also be used to confiscate the proceeds of crime against foreign law or the proceeds of crime against state law if those proceeds have been used in a way that contravenes Commonwealth law. Since her release after nine years in jail, Corby has been living inside the five-star Villa Sentosa Seminyak, protected by the guards hired by the Seven Network. Indonesian sensitivities have been insulted by Corby’s residence in the villa, but last week Corby’s brother-in-law Wayan Widyartha said the group would not yet leave it to go back to the address listed in her parole documents — his family compound in Kuta. He reportedly said Corby wanted to go home as quickly as possible, but that the encampment of Australian journalists, waiting in a hotel cafe outside the compound, were ‘‘causing all the problems’’. Corby is due to serve out more than three years on parole until her final release on July 25, 2017.