A company which ran wealth seminars, courses and mentoring programs has been slammed by the federal court for touting misleading information.
Master Wealth Control Pty Ltd — or, DG Institute — was on Monday ordered to pay millions in penalties and refunds through a redress scheme to its formerly enrolled students.
Well over 3000 students paid between $4500 and $9200 to enrol in two of the company’s programs between 2017 and 2022, after which the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) commenced legal action, it said on Monday.
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Those programs — Real Estate Rescue (RER) and Master Wealth Control (MWC) — offered students advice on property and business investment advice, including strategies for asset protection.
The total cost of the redress for the 2100 students who enrolled in the MWC program alone is $14.7 million.
“DG Institute is required to contact consumers who may be eligible for redress and to post information about the redress scheme on its website and Facebook pages,” ACCC said on Monday.
RER and MWC were promoted during other free wealth content offerings run by company director Dominique Grubisa, and on the DG Institute website throughout the five-year period to 2022.
The federal court revealed a number of specific statements made during the promotion and sale of the programs that were found to be misleading.
One such claim was that students of the RER program would be able to help distressed homeowners retain some equity when selling their home, but that any remaining equity would be lost if the home was repossessed by the mortgagee.
They claimed in part that this was because “banks don’t give change” but the ACCC said: “In fact, a mortgagee is only entitled to amounts owed to it, plus any reasonable costs of recovery.”
Another claim, made to students of the MWC program, asserted students “could completely protect all their assets from creditors by setting up a specific trust DG Institute called a ‘Vestey Trust’ using transaction documents provided by DG Institute”.
But the ACCC said: “In fact, the transaction documents provided did not provide the level of protection from creditors promised.”
It also claimed that the “Vestey Trust” had been tested and upheld as effective by the federal court, but this was not true, ACCC said.
Grubisa was ordered to pay $5 million in pecuniary penalties for making the false statements.
And “for being knowingly concerned in the contraventions” she was also disqualified from managing corporations for five years, and ordered to pay another $1 million.
Grubisa was also banned from making similar or the same claims for a period of five years, and was also ordered alongside DG Institute to pay the costs.
The substantial orders and penalties “reflect the serious nature of the conduct and clearly demonstrate the consequences of making false claims when promoting goods or services to consumers,” ACCC Commissioner Liza Carver said.
“These orders underscore the importance for businesses and company directors to ensure statements made to consumers promoting their products and services are accurate and not misleading.”