The Federal Court today found that Master Wealth Control Pty Ltd, trading as DG Institute breached the Australian Consumer Law, and that its sole Director Dominque Grubisa was knowingly concerned in the contraventions, in proceedings brought by the ACCC.
DG Institute was found to have made false or misleading representations to consumers in the promotion and sale of two education programs called Real Estate Rescue (RER) and Master Wealth Control (MWC) between April 2017 and November 2022. In that period well over 3000 students enrolled in the programs, and each paid between $4,500 and $9,200 to participate.
The Court found that Ms Grubisa, was knowingly concerned in DG Institute’s contraventions through her role in making the statements on video in promotional materials and program materials, and in drafting, reviewing, editing and/or approving content for these materials. The Court also found that Ms Grubisa knew that the representations she made about both programs were in fact false and misleading.
Specifically, the Court found that the following statements about the programs were false or misleading:
- Students of the RER program would be able to assist distressed homeowners to sell their home and retain some of the equity, whereas if a mortgagee was to repossess the property, the homeowner would lose any remaining equity in the property – including because “banks don’t give change”. In fact, a mortgagee is only entitled to amounts owed to it, plus any reasonable costs of recovery.
- Students of the MWC program could completely protect all of their assets from creditors by setting up a specific trust DG Institute called a ‘ Vestey Trust’ using transaction documents provided by DG Institute. In fact, the transaction documents provided did not provide the level of protection from creditors promised.
- the ‘Vestey Trust’ system promoted by DG Institute had been tested and upheld as effective by the Full Court of the Federal Court of Australia in the ‘Sharrment’ case, when in fact this was not the case.
A hearing on the relief orders sought by the ACCC, including penalties, will be held at a later date. The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) is seeking injunctions, penalties, consumer redress, costs and an order against Ms Grubisa disqualifying her from managing corporations.
