Dominique Grubisa of the DG Institute and DGI Wealth banned by ASIC for four years

Wealth creation guru Dominique Grubisa told students to use Family Court data “to identify people in financial distress”. Now she’s in hot water with ASIC.

A Sydney lawyer and self-styled wealth management guru has been hit with an array of bans after the corporate regulator found she encouraged followers to use Family Court data to identify people in financial distress with the hope of buying property on the cheap.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission on Tuesday said it had banned Dominique Grubisa — CEO and director of DG Institute Pty Ltd — from engaging in credit activity, providing financial services, performing any function in a credit entity, or controlling a credit entity or financial services business for four years.

ASIC said it had found Ms Grubisa falsely represented that she and her company DGI Wealth held an Australian financial services licence and Australian credit licence and that she was an “ASIC licenced debt specialist” despite no such licence existing at that time of making that claim.

ASIC has banned Dominique Grubisa for four years. Picture: Supplied

ASIC said Ms Grubisa had “a habit of not telling the truth”.

ASIC said she had “encouraged her students to use data from the Family Court list for an improper purpose, such as to identify people in financial distress, with the hope of buying property under value.”

In a statement, the commission said it had found “Ms Grubisa is not a fit and proper person to engage in financial services or credit activities and is likely to continue to contravene financial services and credit law.”

The DG Institute told The Daily Telegraph it disagreed with the ASIC decision.

“We have lodged an appeal with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal,” the institute said.

“As DG Institute provides educational products and services and we do not engage in credit activity or provide financial services, we will continue to operate as a business and serve our clients.

“As this is an ongoing legal matter, it would be inappropriate to make further comments at this time,” the institute said.

The Telegraph informed ASIC of the institute’s vow to “continue to operate ... and serve our clients” but ASIC did not respond to repeated requests for comment.