Debt Wipeout: Federal Court grants ASIC orders against David Gregory Murphy
Sydney’s David Gregory Murphy says he’s the Messiah and claims to extinguish debts for just 15 per cent of what’s owed using passages from the Bible. But ASIC’s had enough.
NSW
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A Sydney man who believes he is the Messiah has been ordered by the Federal Court to stop claiming on shop-a-dockets and social media that he can extinguish debts for as little as 15 per cent of the amount owed based on a teaching from the Old Testament.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has obtained interim orders against David Gregory Murphy and others over a business called Debt Wipeout after the court found there was a prima facie case that sections of the Corporations Act had been breached.
ASIC has said people who made upfront payments of 15-25 per cent of their debt had not had it extinguished.
Mr Murphy told The Daily Telegraph he planned to defend ASIC’s accusations.
He said his debt extinguishing system was based on the Bible’s Old Testament condemning interest as a sin.
He said under his system, creditors get 100 per cent of what they are owed.
“The banks are upset that they are going to be missing out on some interest,” he said. “They (the banks) don’t understand all of it.”
ASIC said the orders were made pending a final hearing into the conduct of Mr Murphy and others.
It is seeking monetary penalties and orders requiring him to refund any person who paid an amount to have a loan or debt extinguished.
Mr Murphy told The Telegraph that he estimated he had received between $100,000 and $150,000 from people.
“I do have a money-back guarantee,” he said.
The Concord man said it was incorrect to describe Debt Wipeout as a business. It was a “ministry”.
Mr Murphy said he was connected to the “Magdalene Orthodox” church although Mormons had acted as “spotters” for Debt Wipeout.
Mr Murphy refers to himself as a doctor. Asked what he was a doctor of, he said philosophy and religion, after receiving qualifications from the Northern Way Esoteric Theological Seminary in the US.
The Seminary’s website shows its sells doctorates for $US600 ($A845) upon acceptance of a 4000-word thesis about “any spiritual topic”.
Dr Murphy confirmed he had previously told the NSW Supreme Court that he believed he was the Messiah and still does.
Originally published as Debt Wipeout: Federal Court grants ASIC orders against David Gregory Murphy