Property spruiker ‘knowingly misled’ consumers in wealth scheme

Dominique Grubisa and her Master Wealth Control business made false and misleading statements at wealth seminars that lured thousands of victims to its ‘education’ programs, a court has found.

Dominique Grubisa

Property spruiker Dominique Grubisa and her Master Wealth Control business, trading as DG Institute, made false and misleading statements at wealth seminars that lured thousands of victims to its “education” programs, the Federal Court has found.

Between April 2017 and November 2022, more than 3000 students enrolled in DG’s Real Estate Rescue (RER) and Master Wealth Control (MWC), each paying between $4500 and $9200 to participate. The ACCC commenced legal action against Master Wealth Control and Ms Grubisa in December 2022.

The court found Ms Grubisa was knowingly concerned in DG Institute’s contraventions through her role in making the statements on video in promotional materials and program materials, and in drafting, reviewing, editing and/or approving content for these materials. Ms Grubisa knew that the representations she made about both programs were in fact false and misleading, the court said.

Between June 30, 2018, and June 30, 2021, DG Institute earned $8.8m in revenue from the RER program. For the MWC program, DG Institute earned $9.2m over the same period.

The ACCC alleged participants for the RER program were taught about a strategy to assist homeowners — targeted because they were in financial distress “including by monitoring court lists to identify possession, divorce or probate proceedings” — to sell their property and keep some of the change instead of losing all their equity should a bank repossess the asset.

But the strategy was false and misleading because the mortgagee, such as a bank, is only entitled to the amount owing under its agreement with the homeowner.

As well, MWC participants were told they could protect their assets from creditors by setting up a specific trust DG Institute called a Vestey Trust using transaction documents provided by DG Institute. But the transaction documents provided did not provide the level of protection from creditors promised.

ACCC commissioner Liza Carver said the watchdog “received a significant number of complaints from students of DG Institute about the courses and the promotional materials”.

“It should also serve as a strong reminder to company directors that they may be held liable for their involvement in false or misleading representations made by the company in breach of the Australian Consumer Law,” she said.

Federal Court judge Ian Jackman said in his reasons he was satisfied Ms Grubisa knew the claims were false and misleading and should be held liable as an accessory.

Ms Grubisa delivered the majority of seminars for the programs, and graduated from the University of Sydney with a master of laws in 1996 and practised as a solicitor and barrister in debt recovery and enforcement of mortgages.

A court hearing will be held on the relief orders sought by the ACCC, including penalties, consumer redress, costs and for Ms Grubisa to be disqualified from managing corporations.

In April 2022, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission slapped her with a four-year ban over her “habit of not telling the truth” among other breaches. That ban was set aside on October 10, 2023, by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal following her appeal.

Prior to the ban being lifted, Ms Grubisa and her husband reportedly sold their luxury Wedgewood Lodge in Turramurra, NSW, for close to $5m in July 2023 – after just 18 days on the market.