It sure looks like the past has come back to bite Brisbane biotech player Blake Wills

A Brisbane biotech executive engaged in “unconscionable conduct’’ in a previous role with a job training firm, a Federal Court has ruled.

It sure looks like the past has come back to bite Brisbane biotech player Blake Wills.

Wills, currently the boss of gut health outfit Microba, spent four years until mid-2017 as the chief operating officer of ASX-listed Site Group International, which provides education, training and labour services.

A Federal Court ruled late last week that both Wills and Site were “knowingly concerned’’ in a “system of unconscionable conduct’’ at now-defunct Captain Cook College.

Site was the parent company of an entity trading as Captain Cook College, which operated campuses in both Brisbane and Sydney before closing the doors in 2016.

Blake Wills, chief executive of biotech firm Microba

The ACCC launched legal action nearly three years ago, alleging that over a three-month period in 2015 the college improperly enrolled more than 7000 people in online business courses, including some who were mentally disabled or illiterate.

Taxpayers picked up the tab for much of it, with the college claiming about $50m from the federal government under a tuition loan program.

No surprise that the bulk of this money was squandered, with ACCC boss Rod Sims noting more than 90 per cent of the consumers failed to complete any part of the courses and 86 per cent never even logged on to a computer.

“Captain Cook College engaged in egregious conduct that sought to maximise its profit at the expense of students who were left with a debt and at the expense of the Commonwealth, which made substantial payments under the VET FEE HELP scheme, which was funded by taxpayers,’’ Sims said.

The former CEO of the college, Ian Cook, struck a settlement deal with the ACCC in mid-2020 which saw him fined more than $250,000 and banned from managing corporations for three years.

But the court has yet to decide on penalties and other orders for Wills, Site and the college.

Wills did not respond to a request for comment on Monday, while Site said it would “carefully consider the judgment’’ before updating the market on its next move.

Professor Ian Frazer

Launched in 2017 as a UQ start up, Microba includes among its directors and financial backers renowned Queensland scientist Ian Frazer, inventor of the cervical cancer vaccine.

It’s the first company in Australia to sell kits that allow consumers to collect a sample of their faeces, which can then be analysed for DNA sequencing of vital gut bacteria.

The firm, with a lab at PA Hospital campus, has already pushed into the US and other overseas markets.

Back in 2018, Wills attended the world’s biggest biotech conference in Boston, where he hobnobbed with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and then-Innovation Minister Kate Jones.

The following year Microba won a gong for “business innovation’’ at the Lord Mayor’s Business Awards.

But the company, which has more than $28.5m in paid shares on issues, ditched plans for an IPO last year.

The most recently available financial data reveals it suffered a $6.65m net loss in the 2020 financial year. That followed $4.73m of red ink in 2019.

Wills’ father, well-known Brisbane bizoid Vern Wills, previously acted as the founding chairman of Microba but stepped down early last year.

Vern Wills also served as CEO and managing director of Site Group International for eight years before resigning last November. Records show he remains a director of four other Site-related entities.