Alleged: How Eli Dangerfield’s $2.9M claim led to Gold Coast kidnap ploy by Abdullah Al-Kobeissy
A multimillion-dollar civil claim alleged to have sparked an attempted kidnapping and extortion of a finance ‘influencer’ was about plagiarism of an e-commerce course, court documents reveal.
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A multimillion-dollar civil claim alleged to have sparked an attempted kidnapping and extortion of a finance ‘influencer’ was about plagiarism of an e-commerce course, court documents reveal.
The alleged plagiarism has always been denied by Abdullah Al-Kobeissy who said in court documents the “course was not as helpful as I expected” and he learned via trial and error.
Al-Kobeissy also claims he had 1965 fewer students than had been alleged in the plagiarism case and earned nowhere near $2.9 million as claimed.
The case has been part of the allegations against Al-Kobeissy, Darra man Richard Stanley and Edris Sayed Sadeed – charged with kidnapping, attempted kidnapping and extortion – which were aired in Southport Magistrates Court last month.
They have all also been charged with assault occasioning bodily harm, and robbery.
The trio are all contesting the charges.
E-commerce influencer Eli Dangerfield and his friend Jake Batic were allegedly confronted by five men in balaclavas in a Southport building car park on January 18 this year.
Mr Dangerfield managed to escape but Mr Batic was allegedly bundled into a car and driven to Logan.
It is alleged Mr Batic was assaulted and threatened before being released and making his way back to Southport.
Police allege the incident was an attempt to get Mr Dangerfield to drop the $2.9 million civil suit he had lodged in South Australia against Paradise Point man Al-Kobeissy.
Al-Kobeissy has more than 139,000 followers on Instagram and describes himself as an “entrepreneur”.
The Southport Magistrates Court was told last week the day after the kidnapping – January 19 – Mr Dangerfield dropped the civil case.
The Bulletin has obtained the South Australian Supreme Court documents from the civil claim at the centre of the alleged kidnapping plot.
The court documents reveal that Mr Dangerfield’s company Eli Dangerfield Pty Ltd launched legal action in February last year claiming Mr Al-Kobeissy had plagiarised an e-commerce course Mr Dangerfield had released under the business name 6 Figure Brand Academy.
The court documents allege Al-Kobeissy purchased the course in December 2019, giving him access to all the materials.
It is claimed in court documents Al-Kobeissy started his own e-commerce course under the name ECOM HQ in December 2020.
“Mr Al-Kobeissy’s ECOM HQ course uses substantially identical words, screenshots, PDFs and content to ED’s content,” the court documents claim.
The court documents also allege some of Al-Kobeissy’s videos in the course were “direct copies” of the course released by Eli Dangerfield Pty Ltd.
Al-Kobeissy’s access to the course was revoked in November 2021, it is alleged in the court documents.
“Mr Al-Kobeissy has sold more than 2000 student subscriptions at his course at a price of between $800 to $1450 each,” the documents state.
“Mr Al-Kobeissy has made a profit from his course in a range of $1,600,000 to $2,900,000.”
In response Al-Kobeissy, who represented himself, filed his own court documents in response where he denied plagiarism, the cost of the course and the number of students he had.
“I have purchased the course from Eli originally but due to the course not being as helpful as I expected nor when I asked for help did I receive it,” the documents said.
“With this being fact, I learnt about e-commerce further through practical trial and error and decided to help others from my own experience.
“I have created my own course and to the best of my knowledge the course is my own work.”
Later in the documents, Al-Kobeissy addressed the price and student numbers.
“Eli is accusing me of selling the price of the course between $800-$1450 per student which is also a false accusation,” the documents state.
“The prices vary with the students and their circumstances. Some students received the course for as little as $50 whilst others received it at different prices.
“Secondly, I disagree on point 15 which states that I have profited between a range of $1.6 to $2.9 million.
“That’s totally false and the profits made were nowhere as near.”
The court documents go on to state Al-Kobeissy’s course had “no links” with the one by Eli Dangerfield Pty Ltd.
The South Australian Supreme Court confirmed that Eli Dangerfield Pty Ltd had lodged a notice of discontinuance with the court on January 19.
Al-Kobeissy, Stanley and Sadeed are expected to appear in Southport Magistrates Court in relation to the criminal charges in the coming months.
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Originally published as Alleged: How Eli Dangerfield’s $2.9M claim led to Gold Coast kidnap ploy by Abdullah Al-Kobeissy
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