House giveaway on hold after Roxy Jacenko succeeds in having liquidator appointed
Celebrity publicist Roxy Jacenko’s “$10 million house giveaway” is on hold as liquidators pick apart the company set up to run the contest.
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Celebrity publicist Roxy Jacenko’s “$10 million house giveaway” is on hold as liquidators pick apart the company set up to run the contest.
And it was revealed in court that the house is carrying a $5 million mortgage, which the PR queen and her business partners planned to clear with a $7 million insurance policy.
The draw was scheduled to take place on Friday and would have seen the winner entered into a second draw to potentially win a waterfront property in Cronulla.
But that has been paused after the NSW Supreme Court this week appointed a provisional liquidator to the company running the promotion, Roxy’s Bootcamp, following a successful application by Ms Jacenko.
The legal move came after the socialite fell out with her partners in the promotion, businessmen Youssef Tleis and Kassim Alaouie.
Documents from the case revealed it was an ambitious plan to generate up to $20 million in revenue by selling subscriptions to Ms Jacenko’s marketing school, which was packaged with an entry into the draw for the house.
They didn’t go close.
In three months, court documents said they raised about $700,000 from customers – much of which was eaten up by operating and other costs. The company had $3000 in the bank this week.
In her affidavit, Ms Jacenko claimed she stepped away from the business and locked its banking and social media accounts because the two men spent too much of the company’s money on consultants.
She claimed the spending would have left the company unable to pay out the alternative first prize of $250,000, which was on offer if the house was not won.
“I am exhausted, I cannot do this. I cannot work like this … Stop spending money, we can’t afford it. This business needs to run on the smell of an oily rag,” Ms Jacenko wrote that she told her business partners.
Mr Tleis claimed the operation would have been a success but was damaged by Ms Jacenko’s actions.
Mr Tleis wrote in his affidavit that Ms Jacenko paid herself $210,000 “in circumstances where she was not entitled to” and, “without approval”, spent $67,000 on influencers managed by her other business.
“This caused me to be extremely concerned about (Ms Jacenko) not acting in the best interests of the company and instead acting in the interest of her other businesses,” Mr Tleis wrote in his affidavit.
Ms Jacenko claims she was entitled to the money and is still owed $294,000.
The fallout has left the 7000 contestants in doubt as to whether they will get their money back, or if the competition will be drawn.
In her affidavit, Ms Jacenko wrote that she deposited more than $684,000 into her lawyer’s trust account to refund the customers.
The liquidator, Andrew Blundell from Cathro and Partners, said he is in the initial stages of examining the company.
“When we have completed that we will be able to report to the related stakeholders,” Mr Blundell said.
If the draw is to take place, it will occur after the liquidation process.
The Dodson Ave property, which fronts onto Gunnamatta Bay, is owned by Mr Tleis and Mr Alaouie, who bought the property for $3.36 million in October 2020.
When it failed to sell last year, Mr Tleis reached out to Ms Jacenko in February with a partnership proposal that would be used to sell it.
The trio set up a plan where people who signed up to Ms Jacenko’s online training course would be entered into a complicated two-step draw to potentially win the house. Should no one win the house, an alternative first prize of $250,000 was on offer.
The promotion launched on March 8 with varying packages starting from $29 for one month’s access to the course and one entry into the house draw, to $499 for 36 months access and 500 entries in the draw.
Ms Jacenko wrote that Mr Tleis said if they sold 200,000 subscriptions at an average of $99 each, they would generate almost $20 million.
The operation spent about $90,000 on a $7 million insurance policy with the plan for it to clear the mortgage -- if approved by the insurance company -- when the house was won, the documents said.
The PR boss wrote that she was in the middle of a media blitz when she became concerned that the contest was misleading.
Mr Tleis disputed this and wrote that Ms Jacenko “was aware of the terms and conditions, and any failure to properly consider them was of her own doing”.
The wheels fell off shortly after.
Ms Jacenko claimed the men were spending too much on consultants leading to a situation where the business would become insolvent and unable to pay the prize money.
Mr Tleis argued the promotion would have been successful but Ms Jacenko’s moves to lock bank accounts and launch court action to have a liquidator appointed irreparably damaged the operation’s reputation.
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