The investigations into the activities of Dominique Grubisa’s businesses keep coming. This time it’s the privacy regulator. IA reports.
ON 31 JULY, in response to questions raised by Senator David Shoebridge, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) informed the Senate it had commenced a Commissioner Initiated Investigation (CII) into the activities of Master Wealth Control Pty Ltd trading as DG Institute and Property Lovers Pty Ltd. The investigation commenced on 19 May. The OAIC said its investigation is in the initial stages and is ongoing.
Whilst DG Institute is still operating, Grubisa promotes most of its programs through the Property Lovers brand these days. Property Lovers was incorporated in July last year. The sole director of Property Lovers is Grubisa’s husband, Kevin.
Earlier this year Grubisa rebranded her closed Facebook community groups from DG Institute to Property Lovers. This followed the rebranding of DGI Lawyers to Assure Lawyers and DGI Finance to Capital Mortgage Group last year.
Commissioner-initiated investigations are quite rare. Apart from investigations into high-profile data breaches such as those affecting Optus and Medibank, there have been very few such investigations by the Commissioner in recent years. Two that have made the press are an investigation into the use of facial recognition technology by Bunnings and Kmart and a similar investigation into the collection of facial images and faceprints by 7-Eleven as part of its customer feedback mechanism. A joint investigation with the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office into Clearview AI was another.
Late last year, amendments were made to the penalty provisions under the Privacy Act.
The maximum penalty for repeated or serious interference with privacy is now the greater of $50 million, three times the benefit of a contravention, or where the benefit cannot be determined, 30% of ‘adjusted turnover’ of the relevant entity.
A recent incarnation of Grubisa’s property program was her Zero to Hero: 5-Day Challenge. Participants are told they will have “Elite Squad Access”, a backstage pass to:
'Learn directly from [their] top-tier team of property gurus, finance maestros, and legal experts.'
Surely, she hasn’t created yet more work for James Lyons? Which other legal experts would she be referring to when numerous lawyers have recently left Assure Lawyers.
Undeterred by the OAIC’s investigation, Grubisa offered those who signed up to her challenge a “bonus session”. Grubisa is always giving.
This session is a sales pitch for her “Elite Mentoring Program”. The giving aspect turns into a sales pitch for a $25,000 program (if you pay in one hit), or $30,000 (if you pay by instalments).
This is the program where people are provided with, in Grubisa’s words (at 38 mins into this video) “weekly leads lists [from her] comprising all distressed properties in Australia, with names and addresses”.
She uploads these lists to her “Fast Property” platform which is a white-labelled version of Stash Property’s platform.
IA understands that National Property Group has followed its competitors CoreLogic Domain Group and also Archistar in severing ties with Ms Grubisa’s businesses.
It is now three years since IA published the first of its stories about Grubisa and her programs.
Grubisa perseveres with daily motivational quotes posted to Twitter each workday. The posts include hashtags as #motivation #inspiration #success. With all the regulatory action on foot, there’s no doubt Grubisa would be looking for motivation.
Here are a number of recent quotes:
In the face of adversity, it’s not the strength of the storm but the flexibility of the willow that perseveres.
The purpose of life is not to be happy, but to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to have it make some difference that you lived at all.
Given Grubisa is already the subject of regulatory action by ASIC, proceedings by the ACCC, the subject of a public warning by the ATO about dodgy superannuation advice and now this investigation by the OAIC, we are surprised that she hasn’t gone even more Trumpian and claimed the Federal Government is weaponising federal regulators against her. There are also the proceedings by the Law Society of New South Wales.
After all, Grubisa’s rejected Wikipedia page mentioned that Grubisa is:
‘A vocal critic of established financial institutions, particularly banks, the Australian Tax Office and government agencies.'
Grubisa still convinced of her own brilliance has also recently called upon inspiration from a supposed quote from Einstein, saying:
'Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.'
You simply cannot make it up.
Follow Independent Australia on Twitter at @independentaus, on Twitter HERE, Facebook HERE and Instagram HERE.
Related Articles
- More ASIC headaches for the Grubisa clan
- Dominique Grubisa: Still making fools of her followers
- Dominique Grubisa faces Federal Court in ACCC case
- Dominique Grubisa 'assured' by her lawyers, but what about their clients?
- 'Robin Hood' Grubisa rolls on with rotten real estate advice
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Australia License
Support independent journalism Subscribe to IA.
