A network of underworld figures and associates have used a licensed finance business as a front to run a loan sharking operation that charges desperate borrowers interest rates of up to 792 per cent.

The firm, Capital One Securities, is owned and run by former bankrupt Tom Karas, who was accused by the Purana anti-gangland taskforce of laundering criminal proceeds on behalf of the Mokbel drug empire.

Illustration: Matt Golding.

Karas' control of the company seems to be in contravention of finance industry regulations, which could now be the subject of a review by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

Despite links to organised crime and a history of financial impropriety, Karas was granted a national credit licence by ASIC in 2011 after being deemed ''fit and proper''.