Dominique Grubisa: Making a fortune from others misfortune
Sydney-based lawyer operating under a Victorian practising certificate, Dominique Grubisa, makes millions selling seminars advising aspiring property magnates about how to find distressed investors and acquire their assets for less than market value.
In addition, she advises how to protect their assets from creditors, lawyers and even the Government. To sweeten the hefty four and five-figure sums these courses typically cost, the former barrister also offers legal advice and services on top of the tuition.
Since mid-2019, Grubisa has been spruiking her "Business Turnaround Program", which is said to advise students 'how to takeover and turnaround businesses for profit with no money down or minimal financial risk'.
Mrs Grubisa's next seminar is set to be held this weekend, on Saturday 17 April. The program features high profile broadcasters and business commentators Peter Switzer and David Koch. Independent Australia expects that in this webinar, Dominique Grubisa will be promoting her purported asset protection product, Master Wealth Control (MWC, covered by IA in February).
Since the publication of that February article, the webpage promoting the MWC product has been changed. What was previously described as a '"Done-For-You" Lifetime Legal Service' is now described as a '"Done-For-You" Lifetime Professional Service'. What was promoted as including 'personalised legal advice' for clients' circumstances is now promoted as 'personalised professional advice'. If drafting a will is not legal work, then what is?
The Business Turnaround Program costs $6,500 (or $7,800 if paid by instalments) and includes 12 months access to the ABR Gazette (ABRG). Publisher Equifax describes the ABRG as 'a subscription-only commercial information service, collating public record information on companies and individuals, such as insolvency, bankruptcy and court data relating to debt'.
Dominique Grubisa encourages her students to use Equifax as a "secret weapon" to identify struggling businesses, then approach their owners in order to acquire them without any outlay.
Mrs Grubisa says she went to Equifax and asked them, "how can I reverse engineer the data?" they use for credit reporting purposes.
The Sydney solicitor claimed she then said to Equifax, "we want the risk, so that we can identify and approach those businesses."
Dominique Grubisa's 'distressed' Victorian law practising certificate
She goes on to tell students:
However, Australia does have privacy laws.
In 2017, then publisher VEDA (since rebranded as Equifax) agreed to a conciliated resolution to a consumer complaint lodged with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) about the ABRG. The complainant alleged the ABRG contravened the Commonwealth Privacy Act (1988) by publishing court judgment information about individuals, which was used for marketing by certain credit repair agencies and debt management firms.
Without admitting fault, VEDA then 'agreed to phase-out individual judgment information not related to a business from the ABR Gazette'. On its website, Equifax states 'the cover of the ABR Gazette includes the terms and conditions of use, restricting it to the assessment of credit risk'. In other words, subscribers must only use the ABRG to assess credit risk - not to seek out and target financially distressed businesses.
IA contacted Equifax for comment about the use of the ABR Gazette by students of Grubisa's course for purposes that were outside its terms of use.
Equifax replied:
BUSINESSES BOUGHT WITHOUT SPENDING A CENT?
In her Business Turnaround Guidebook (BTG), Dominique Grubisa says that by employing "leveraging techniques" her students won't spend money acquiring the business, dramatically reducing risk and exposure should things go wrong. She tells her students to challenge the status quo and look past "accepted wisdom"; not to assume that because so-called experts are telling you things can only be done one way that this is, in fact, the case. Making money involves finding smarter, "more sophisticated" ways of addressing challenges, Mrs Grubisa teaches. [BTG, pg 8]
She describes the conventional way of acquiring a business, with experts studying the contracts and books, as, at best, a flawed process and, at worst, a costly timewaster. With legal and financial experts being so keen to cover their behinds, she claims, they "pooh-pooh" just about any deal. [BTG, pg63]
Dominique Grubisa's 'Vestey Trust': Caveat emptor
Remarkably, Grubisa claims that the reading and practical work undertaken through her course provide her students 'with more knowledge than many insolvency practitioners who work, day in, day out, with distressed businesses'. [BTG, pg 16]
It should be noted that to be registered as a liquidator, an "insolvency practitioner" must show 4,000 hours in the previous five years of relevant employment at a senior level in the external administration of companies, receivership and receivership and management.
Dominique Grubisa advises her students to assume control of financially struggling businesses if its woes are to be arrested. And having done that, not to "cede control" back to the owner. [BTG, pg 28]
Mrs Grubisa refers to some businesses as being "a dog with fleas" - ones that do not have the potential to be revived. She says students will not know this for sure until they have made an agreement with the owner, become involved and had a good look around. [BTG, pg 48]
In these cases, she advises, all payments to creditors should cease, telling creditors you are putting a halt on outgoings while they (the potential investor) undertake their due diligence. She says this is 'stopping payments to avoid the potential for insolvent trading'. [BTG, pg 48]
The above advice is incorrect. Insolvent trading is where a company incurs a debt whilst insolvent - not where it pays off existing debts.
Mrs Grubisa further suggests a strategy for students of her course to acquire the assets of a company "truly on its last legs". This involves first to cease trading, then advising creditors this has occurred. Grubisa claims that 'you are then required to hold a board meeting to discuss the issue'. The next step, apparently, is to advertise the sale of the assets. [BTG, pg 49]
In other words, Dominique Grubisa's advice is to students is to come into a financially distressed company and take control without paying any funds, refusing to cede control back to the owners, before selling the business' assets.
Her next piece of advice to students is for them to lay on the table an amount they are prepared to pay. The surprising thing, she says, is that in nine cases out of ten, there will be no buyer. This, she asserts, is because the assets of an established business will usually only be of value to the business itself. [BTG, pg 49]
It is then recommended that the student's company, set up to acquire the business, should invoice the distressed company for those assets. Mrs Grubisa says there need not be a strict timeframe on paying the agreed amount. The agreement may involve the budding business owner paying money over time, using the assets to generate income, she says. [BTG, pg 49]
Catfishing with Dominique Grubisa: The DG Institute's fake reviews
IA spoke to an experienced solicitor about these strategies, who said he was very troubled by Mrs Grubisa's advice:
In September 2007, an article in the Victorian Law Institute Journal, the Legal Practitioners Liability Committee of the Institute (LPLC, in fact, the insurer of Mrs Grubisa's legal practice) said:
The LPLC suggests solicitors to 'advise your vendor client not to advance vendor finance in any form'.
Real Estate Rescue's Dominique Grubisa: The dame selling distress
In a three-day workshop held in November 2019, Dominique Grubisa offered her take on various insolvency concepts to attendees.
For example, Mrs Grubisa claimed there that, in relation to administration:
As for receivership, Mrs Grubisa said:
The same solicitor mentioned earlier had these comments about this advice:
When it comes to Dominique Grubisa's costly seminars, it would appear to be a certain case of "may the buyer beware".
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