Sophistry and Snake Oil

 

By Gi Linda.

“Sophistry” is perverted wisdom; a subtle, tricky, superficially plausible, but generally fallacious method of reasoning that seems true and sounds convincing but is actually deliberately misleading.

In Greece, c.5BC, the sophists were itinerant intellectuals and paid mentors who rejected moral absolutes, teaching that justice comes from dominance of the strongest. They used spurious arguments and rhetorical persuasion to gain influence for their clients. 

Through Plato and Aristotle, sophistry came to mean the deliberate use of fallacious reasoning, intellectual charlatanism and moral unscrupulousness.

In today’s world of commerce-driven screen-media where distinction between fantasy and reality is irrelevant, the word may be forgotten, yet sophistry is widely practiced in pursuit of  power, privilege and profit.

The most successful sophists who entangle their prey in a self-interested matrix of lies tend to also exhibit extreme narcissist and psychopathic tendencies.

The dominating drive for personal satisfaction feeds greed and stunts normal development of humane qualities such as integrity, kindness, empathy and remorse, while those who habitually practice deceptive sophistry cultivate a slick veneer of smirking sincerity greased by flattery that lures and hooks the undiscerning. Truth is mocked and compassion is exploited as weakness. Deceived victims are then devalued, discredited and discarded.

This story of two contemporary sophists began in 2013 with a false narrative established by “Truthology Foundation” at “Freedom Summits” where Mark Darwin offered to “set you free from the Money Game”. 

Darwin was teaching clients and followers how to defeat the law by using the dominance of clever argumentation. In a 2014 Truthology email Darwin claimed:

“You can be assured that Mark is a very dynamic, charismatic individual and his seminars are entertaining, engaging, and hilarious at times and oftentimes life-changing for those attending…  Thats right we Teach YOU how to do it and finally be FREE from Their system !!!” 

“Truthology” was marketed online as “a truth and awareness site, and service provider that helps the people… We assist you to be free from the shackles of money stress, the debt trap, how to lawfully take on the banks, challenge fines and infringements, and how to stop paying taxes… and much, much more…"

"What Mark had discovered was so liberating, empowering and life-changing that he felt a deep, overwhelming desire to help other people.”

This “deep, overwhelming desire to help other people” led Mark Darwin and Adrian Brennock in 2014 to invite “selected” investors, as supposed co-owners of a 640 acre property at Mt Burrell, NSW, to pay large amounts of their money into Darwin's bank account held in trust by Wroth Wall Lawyers. But the land-share narrative was false.

Investors whose naive, misplaced trust was betrayed became victims of this snake-oil sophistry and lost life savings, inheritances, pension funds and homes.

In 2015, purchase of the land should have been made by Darwin and Brennock with a Community Association providing purchase money investors shared proprietary rights as promised, but instead, the land was dishonorably acquired by a private company. Adrian Brennock, as self-appointed director, established his personal ownership of the property by holding a single $1 share.

This bait-n-switch sophistry was morally and ethically unconscionable leaving angry investors defrauded, but Brennock's snatching of the property from those who paid for it was ostensibly legal.

Investors who had been invited in 2014-15 by Darwin and Brennock into the first supposed “land-share community” were evicted from the land in 2016-17 without return of investment. Brennock is now attempting a pre-positioned transfer of the land asset in a phoenix move with the help of Vincents Chartered Accountants.

The “Bhula Bhula Village Community” scam was first exposed in October 2016 in “The Truth About Bhula Bhula” published in the Nimbin GoodTimes, revealing details of the land-share investment scam.

With their false narrative exposed, Darwin and Brennock removed the  “Truthology,” “Freedom Summits” and “Bhula Bhula Village Community” websites and switched their business and social networking name to “Rainmaker Eco Investments” inviting “ethical investments” in the same land-share scam, but at a higher price.

By 2016 Darwin and Brennock had expanded their land-share scam to the adjoining 3,000-acre property owned by Peter van Lieshout, using the name “Mount Warning Eco Village.”

The blog "Mount Warning Eco Village - A Warning" is published by the "Association of Investors Defrauded by Darwin" to document our experience and expose Darwin / Brennock's land-share scam, in the public interest.

Darwin and Brennock, facing criminal and civil charges by the Association of Defrauded Investors,  failed in 2017 with two applications to NSW Supreme Court for urgent injunctions to force removal of the blogs exposing their scam.

In November 2017 they changed the name of their venture from "Mount Warning Eco Village" to “Nightcap Village” then to “Nightcap on Minjungbal”. 

The “Truthology” website has recently been revived, no longer mendaciously offering services as a “beacon of truth in a sea of lies”, but now anonymously offering help in making superannuation investments.

As discredited sophists adopting various chameleon façades to pretend a more reputable appearance, Darwin and Brennock have devised more false narratives to explain the increasing reluctance of new investors to buy into their snake-oil scam.

After it was discovered in 2015 that investors in the first supposed "land-share community" had been defrauded and that multiple occupancy was not permitted on the land they had paid for, those who demanded accountability were defamed with false narratives and blamed for the failure of the “community”. 

Ongoing ad hominem attacks against “detractors,” are combined with intimidating threats, malicious harassment and stalking.  The false accusations include incorrect and misleading accounts of ongoing litigation. Vicious character assassinations are spread locally, online and have been presented in perjured affidavits to the courts.

Sophistry does not require that any argument be true or supported by evidence, only that it sounds convincing and is believed. Entranced by snake oil narratives, the credulous are deceived, betrayed and left without feasible legal recourse.

The contemptuous sophists, bloated with infusions of “coin” dishonorably gained by denying defrauded investors their equitable rights, scoff and mock their victims in sickening ritual celebration of their apparently unrestrained ability to profit by deception.

However, with their eyes now cast on even more ambitious empires and a minor celebrity, Tyler Tolman, ingenuously vouching for their authenticity, Darwin, Brennock and their accomplices are now encountering opponents who are highly motivated to bite back against those who attempt to pervert justice by domination of specious argumentation.

Blessing the Enemy

“Justice is turned away backward and righteousness stands far off, for truth has fallen in the streets and honor is repelled. Truth is lacking and one who departs from evil becomes its prey. The Lord saw, displeased that there was no justice, and was amazed that no-one would intercede. Then the Lord’s own arm brought triumph… Wrapped in zeal as a cloak, according to their deeds, so will He repay: Wrath to His adversaries and repayment to His enemies.” Isaiah 59

Nightcap Village Nightmare Revived

By Gi Linda.

Peter and Joan van Lieshout.

Dutchman Peter van Lieshout, with familial ties to Super A-Mart, is not one to let controversy, adverse public opinion or the nuisance of Australian development regulations stand in the way of his ideas. 

Owner of 3,000 acres in Nightcap Forest, near Mt Burrell, NSW, he aspires to build a town where happy “Nightcappers,” prospective inhabitants of his village will hopefully live harmoniously with nature and pay his land taxes.

Nightcap Village was proposed to include 1,000 residents with 250 houses, 130 three storey units, a 100-bed backpacker, a 100-bed motel, 50 shops and a pub. The DA anticipated the village would generate an additional local 4,500 car movements a day.

Developed in 2006 by the Vanlieshout Group, Nightcap Village was marketed as "Zero Impact Living".

Before submitting an application for development approval, an Environmental Impact Study found the proposed village site to be located in pristine forest, rich with rare and endangered species.

  Undeterred, van Lieshout built unapproved dams, permitted unapproved residences and cleared an area for the proposed Nightcap Village without any prior development consent.

News in 2006 of the intended $137 million development triggered loud complaints from outraged locals, strongly opposed to the unwanted imposition of a potential urban eruption in the beautiful rural valley.

When van Lieshout lodged a development application for Nightcap Village with Tweed Shire Council there was massive opposition from local residents, spearheaded by environmental defenders who actively protect the integrity of the Northern Rivers’ natural resources from indiscriminate developers and corporate greed.

Local protest against Nightcap Village, 2009

The Caldera Residents Action Group, CRAG, gathered over 600 handwritten objections to the proposed Nightcap Village. When it came to a vote on the DA,  the Environmental Impact Statement listing endangered species was not presented and a required aboriginal heritage study had not been conducted.

Pete Symons, a local who studies the impact of “geopathic stress” on land, claimed the proposed site of Nightcap Village is “cursed” because of a massacre of Aboriginal people on that site, giving it a “destructive and harmful energy signature”.

Widjabul Elders said the bodies of the massacred men, women and children were “so badly mutilated that distressed people who discovered the massacre lit  beacon fires all around Mt Warning, calling in the clans to perform funeral rites and sing a curse into the land”.

Council received over 500 submissions arguing against the proposed development. Several speakers complained that council was serving developers rather than the people who elected them.

Peter van Lieshout’s wife, aspiring co-developer Joan van Lieshout, just happened to be Mayor of Tweed Shire at the time. She abstained from voting to avoid appearance of conflict of interest. Only two councilors, Katie Milne and Barry Longland, voted against the development.

The proposed village sounded an alarm in local papers with Tweed Daily News Aug 2007 reporting Nightmare 'Nightcap' Development Approved in Tweed Shire:  “On announcement of the vote in favour of the DA, the gallery broke into a near brawl, as residents yelled at the top of their voices their extreme anger and disappointment.”

At a subsequent Land and Environment Court hearing 100 people objected to the proposal with only one in favour. Even so, the Commissioner approved the development.

Despite Peter van Lieshout's aggressive push for development consent in contempt of overwhelming local opposition, he found the cost of required infrastructure impossible to meet. The plans did not proceed and development consent lapsed in 2011. 

The frustrated developer, with unpaid land taxes mounting, became re-inspired in 2015 when leaders of a Sovereignty Cult whose finance manager, known to those he has treated unconscionably as “Jimmy the Maggot” purchased an adjoining property and began to promote a community, “Living in Harmony”.

The "Intentional Community" called "Bhula Bhula" was established without development approval on environmentally protected land where multiple occupancy was prohibited.

Bhula Bhula Community marketing ad, 2015

Describing their initiative as “unconventional business,” Adrian Brennock and cohorts defrauded investors of purchase price monies in 2015. After falsely promising potential investors co-ownership of the land, they purchased the 640 acre property through a private company. Adrian Brennock acquired legal ownership of the asset in his personal right as company director and sole shareholder with a single share value $1.

Defrauded investors who called for accountability woke up to a nightmare of litigation, threats, bullying and stalking as they were forcibly evicted from the property without restitution of their funds.

Phillip Dixon

Undeterred by the carnage of broken dreams, shattered families and empty bank accounts left in the wake of their failed venture, and ever aspiring to greater visions, Adrian Brennock with sidekicks Mark Darwin and Phillip Dixon made a deal in early 2016 with neighbour Peter van Lieshout to expand their initiative onto his property.

"Mount Warning Eco Village" was set up and by 2017 a move was in place to transfer legal title of the land paid for by the defrauded investors to the new company. The attempted pre-positioned asset sale as an ongoing phoenix move is being facilitated through liquidation by Vincents Chartered Accountants.

Tyler Tolman and Adrian Brennock

In November 2017, "Mount Warning Eco Village", the name of Darwin and Brennock's "Village Community" scheme, was switched to “Nightcap Village” and promoted by celebrity “Ambassador” Tyler Tolman, who describes himself as the “money man” behind the venture.

The aspiring developers of Nightcap Village prefer to occult their nexus as cabos of the dishonorable sovereignty cult that defrauded investors of over $1.5 million by offering "ethical investments" in a land-share scam!

Mark Darwin

Their first attempted “village community” failed, causing immeasurable hurt and harm to those who ingenuously trusted Darwin's deceptive blue-eyed sales pitch.

Nightcap Village website now advertises: "...an exciting project underway to build an entire eco friendly, sustainable village on a 3500+ acre site at the foot of Mt Warning..."

It's an attractive vision given a veneer of credibility with a gloss of celebrity, but with local outrage re-emerging it becomes increasingly evident that the new promises are the same as the old promises as "Nightcap Village Nightmare" revives.

Buyer Beware!

From Mount Warning Eco Village to Nightcap Nightmare

"...and I want a Tyler Tolman health spa, an exotic waterfront resort in an exclusive ecovillage with lagoons and waterfalls... me too, me too..."

Tweed Echo 2006

Nimbin GoodTimes 2006

Creative Justice

The Association of Defrauded Investors exceeded the goal of the crowdfunder "Fund$ for Justice" in one day! Deep thanks to those who are assisting us in financing legal action to expose and oppose the Mt Burrell land-share scams runs by Mark Darwin, Adrian Brennock and accomplices that have left investors defrauded of over $1.5 million.

Truth and Justice will prevail with your help!

The Mt Burrell Land-Share Scam

From 2014-15, the co-founders of the proposed Mt Burrell "Village Communities", Mark Darwin and Adrian Brennock, misled investors in a 640 acre property in Mt Burrell with false assurances that those who provided the purchase money for the property would be co-owners of the land with effective control over its management.

After receiving our funds the land was not bought and registered in a "Community Association", as promised, but was purchased by a private company, with Adrian Brennock as self-appointed director and sole shareholder, owning/controlling our land with a $1 share, while investors were issued fake shares in a fraudulent Trust.

Investors were also deceived about potential permissible land use. No development application was ever initiated and those who paid for the land were evicted in 2016-17 without return of our funds.

Three investors lost inheritances, others have lost their entire life savings.
 
Two years after taking our money, despite many empty promised of restitution, Darwin/Brennock have put the company in Voluntary Administration, falsely claiming insolvency, in a "phoenix move" to transfer the land to Mt Warning Eco Village Pty Ltd, another company under their control, while burning all who paid the purchase price of the property.

We launched "Fund$ for Justice" to help complete litigation successfully by financing professional legal assistance to stop this scam and recover the property that was stolen from us. 


We exceeded our goal in one day, and we have now retained a forensic accountant and private investigator to complete a Brief of Evidence on behalf of the Association of Investors Defrauded by Darwin, who are bringing criminal charges of fraud, collusion in fraud, larceny perjury and subornation of perjury against Darwin/Brennock and accomplices.

In other litigation we are initiating recovery of the 640-acre property that was stolen from us by the so-called "Bully-Bully Boyz". Our land was placed by Brennock under control of a Liquidator in a pre-positioned asset sale that is an attempted "phoenix move" to transfer the asset to Mt Warning Eco Village Pty Ltd.

Defrauded investors have filed a report of the attempted asset stripping move to the ATO Phoenix Hotline.

Please visit our Blog Archive to read more about the legal action in process, and our opposition to Darwin/Brennock's "ethical investment opportunities" where "Pre-DA home-sites" on environmentally protected land are offered in prospective "Community Landshare Villages" at Mt Burrell.

   
From "Bhula Bhula Village Community and "Mt Burrell Commercial Precinct" to "Mount Warning Eco Village" and now to "Nightcap Village", the deception that we expose and oppose has already claimed the hard-earned resources of many victims and continues to affect the entire local community.

We thank and deeply appreciate all supporters of Truth and Justice!

Athena Blinked

 

By Gi Linda.

Athena, classical goddess of justice, is always depicted blindfold as a symbol of impartiality, but in a post-humane world what happens when the blindfold is removed and Athena blinks?
 

Winning the Blog Wars

By Gi Linda.

The "Battle of the Blogs" was won with a welcome victory for truth and justice in NSW Supreme Court on October 3rd, when Justice Lucy McCallum ruled in my favor and rejected an injurious falsehood claim by Mt Warning Eco Village demanding a gag on freedom of speech and removal by court order of the blog, "Mt Warning Eco Village - A Warning".

The BlogWars began when defrauded investors decided strategies to recover collective losses of more than $1.5 million that we suffered after investing in Mark Darwin's land-share scam in 2014-5. We were preparing legal action and decided to start a blog to document our experience and warn others who were being sucked into the same vortex of deception that had robbed us of our life savings.

Having professional skills in media and journalism I agreed to author the blog on behalf of the "Group of Investors Defrauded by Darwin".

The blog warns that Mount Warning Eco Village is the latest attempt by Darwin and Brennock to form a "Village Community" on environmentally protected land without development approval. Alluring marketing hides the reality of a project already marred by the deep footprints of a long trail of disenfranchised investors whose broken dreams and empty bank accounts have caused a lot of anger and a deep interest in vindication.  

The first failed attempt by Darwin and Brennock to form "Bhula Bhula Village Community" under the deceptive auspices of "Truthology", was from 2014-17 at 3222 Kyogle Rd, Mt Burrell. Investors were led to believe we would have an equitable interest in the land that we collectively purchased, but we were scammed when instead of purchasing the land through a legitimate Community Association, as promised, the property was bought using our money by a private company with Adrain Brennock as self-appointed sole director and sole shareholder, effectively owning and controlling the land we paid for by holding a $1 share. 

In retaliation for the blog and my news report exposing them, in December 2016 the "Bully-Bully-Boyz" blocked my access to the land, smashed my camp, destroyed my Garden and stole my mobile home and belongings.

The police were told by the "Bully-Bully-Boyz" that Adrian Brennock was owner of the Land and that I was a "trespasser". They requested and received police assistance, so I filed criminal charges of fraud and larceny as a private prosecution.

The defamer charges the defamed with defamation!

In attempts to menace and damage my professional reputation, Mark Darwin, as founder of the failed "Bhula Bhula Village Community" and "creator" of "Mount Warning Eco Village" fueled the Blog Wars with vicious ad hominem attacks and false reports of legal matters. 

At the same time as publicly slandering and publishing malicious lies about me, Darwin and Brennock also initiated a defamation case and an injurious falsehood case against me in NSW Supreme Court.

A first injunction requesting court orders to remove this blog was withdrawn after two hearings by Darwin/Brennock's barrister, Dauid Sibtain, for lack of evidence that development approval was in place prior to selling home-sites. 

A second  urgent interlocutory injunction by Darwin and the boyz requested a Duty Judge to make a summary judgement to gag free speech, but was referred back to Justice McCallum on the defamation list.

After eight hearings of this matter in Sydney Supreme Court, Justice Lucy McCallum announced her judgement rejecting the claim by Mt Warning Eco Village that this blog contains injurious falsehoods that have damaged the inchoate company's commercial interests. 

This decision was made only on the company's request for an interim gag order until a final hearing of evidence of injurious falsehood. It's not yet known whether the defeated plaintiffs will now withdraw the charges or continue the Blog Wars slugfest.
 
Defamation Case

Apart from the company's injurious falsehood litigation, the original defamation charges against myself and Nimbin GoodTimes are still ongoing with claims for damages of over $3 million regarding an article I authored that was published by the Nimbin GoodTimes in October 2016; "The Truth About Bhula Bhula" that reveals Darwin/Brennock's land-share scam at Mt Burrell. 

Nimbin GoodTimes editor Dob Dooley quickly capitulated to the intimidation of threatening litigation. In exchange for promises that Nimbin GoodTimes would not suffer any bad times, Dob Dooley deleted my article from the newspaper's online archive and threw me under the bus with promises to Darwin and the bully-bully boyz of an apologetic retraction and the gift of free full page ads in every issue for the next year.

Darwin loudly celebrated by publishing his Pyrrhic conquest of Dob Dooley on his vicious blog dedicated to a false narrative mutilating my reputation and misreporting legal proceedings. Darwin uses his malicious blog to promote a false reality, painting himself as a hero whose failures are transmorgified into incredible delusions of success.  

Following the court decision not to take down the blogs, the promised retraction and ad have not been published in the Nimbin GoodTimes, although the original article has been removed from the paper's online archive.

The deleted  Nimbin GoodTimes article is archived here: "The Truth About Bhula Bhula".

Underlying Darwin's mendacious blog, the scoffing of spamming comments and the manic "Bah-ha-ha" of threatening emails sent to opponents by his avatar, "Dummass Boofhead", there is a claim that my professional qualifications are fake. Until now I have ignored Darwin's taunts, insults and contemptuous threats. However, since his malicious attacks have escalated and the litigation is a public matter, as writer of the Nimbin GoodTimes article exposing the land-share scam, and principal author of the blog facing defamation and injurious falsehood litigation, to validate my credentials I have posted below a synopsis of my filmography:

Gi Linda FILMOGRAPHY

 

Gi Linda -- Gillian Linda Norman, nee Brown

Former BBC Reporter - Award-winning Documentary Filmmaker - Blog Author

Darwin / Brennock Investment Scam -- A Warning!

By Concerned Neighbour -

I am a 'Mt Burrell local' and have watched what has gone on at 3222 Kyogle Road since 2014 when Darwin and Brennock set about getting the funds together to buy the land. I was appalled by Darwin's youtube video talking about our piece of paradise, calling it Hicksville and how they, with the help of likeminded people, would educate the locals, take over Sphinx Rock Cafe and serve real food, that they had grown on their land. 

3222 Kyogle Rd, Mt Burrell, NSW

A shanty town grew up at 3222 Kyogle Road. Fortunately the council became involved and the Land and Environment Court ordered all dwellings, except the original farmhouse, to be removed. What was once prime agricultural land is now in ruins. Everyone left after taking down their dwellings.

I have subsequently met several of the people who 'invested' their money in this illegal scheme and they are good people who believed the dream that Darwin and Brennock were selling. They have lost their 'investment' and for many that was all they had - everything gone.

New land, same lies

 Darwin and Brennock have now moved their scam to a property at Mebbin Springs (Mount Warning Eco Village). They have started with the same lies and schemes that I saw at Mt Burrell. More people are being conned and once again they will lose their money.

Don't listen to their lies!
Don't give them your money for nothing but heartache in return!

The Bhula Bhula Community Disaster

By Melissa Hirsch - A Defrauded Investor -

My experience of the Bhula Bhula Community disaster:

I bought into Bhula Bhula (BB) in March 2015, fourteen weeks before the land was purchased. I was both excited and concerned… in retrospect I can see how naive and trusting I was.

As a single, middle-aged woman I was excited at the possibility of living in a community of like-minded people. It would be a combination of a social, support and information network with kids, families, intelligent conversation, a brain-trust… people who knew more or differently from me.

My concern was the gap between what was on paper and what was alluded to and ‘emphasised’ by the front men (the boyz).

So many of the 'stories' that were sold to us never eventuated… the community centre, the equality, transparency and honesty… even the contracts on paper that were constantly a ‘known’ within the community were not honoured.

One of the most important processes that was not actioned was the "Incorporated Association" through which investors would jointly own and control the land. The Association should have been the sole share holder in the company that owned the land. 

Instead, Adrian Brennock made himself the sole share holder, never registering the Association or those that paid for the land, though I do have emails from Mark Darwin informing us the "Association" was registered, and all the rest of the 'stories' about how we would become members before the land was purchased, etc, etc…
 

No matter how many times we asked, requested, demanded, nothing changed!

Emails, YouTube clips and conversations were full of contradictions and manipulations of the truth to cover their arses, but these were also purposeful, conscious manipulations to 'sell'. At first we thought the contradictions and changing ‘facts’ were mistakes, but its clear now how deliberate these were.

Whenever anyone asked questions, or asked to see the financial accounts they were ignored, then eventually verbally bullied and abused in person or through emails. The boyz send the most delightfully spiteful anonymous emails, full of venom and personal attacks. Their most recent pseudonym is "Dummass Boofhead"  or "FYJ Boofhead" (thats FYJ for "F*k You Jimmy" -- a phrase that amuses them no end).

There are at least 5 families who have lost their entire life savings to these people and many individuals have lost huge chunks of their earnings, over $1.5 million, all taken from those who earned and saved then purchased the land.
 

Here are some of the games these boyz have played: they have gone from one tax avoidance scheme to another, changing companies, foundation names and fronts, burning many people/companies/foundations/businesses. All because they can, because they exploit legal loopholes and betray the trust of honest, decent people.
 

Their next project is another Eco Village at Mt Burrell. Apparently they are sucking in more people and manipulating the truth and those in authority. If you think those of us included in this blog are just bitter, twisted losers, then talk to some Mt Burrell locals and hear them out… that way you can save your arses, your money and count your blessings that there are some moral and ethical people out there, willing to take a stand.

I recommend watching the YouTube clips….RECREATING THE VILLAGE #1 &#2…..so much of what is said is NOT TRUTH… those TRUTHOLOGY boyz… tut, tut!

Facts About Mount Warning Eco Village Scam

By Gi Linda.

“Truthology” was the deceptive front used as a database by Mark Darwin and Adrian Brennock in 2014, when they first began calling for investors to buy land and form a “Village Community.”

 Mark Darwin aka 'FYJ Boofhead"

Darwin and Brennock acquired $1.5 million to purchase the land, plus loans and superannuation, and established “Bhula Bhula Village Community”  at 3222 Kyogle Rd, Mt Burrell, NSW, Australia.  

But the “Village Community.” was governed by an improperly executed Trust that enabled Darwin and Brennock to betray the trust of the supposed "unit holders".  

Potential investors were misled by false representations and the silent omission of known restrictions on potential land use.  Investors who paid for the land were then disenfranchised with only a beneficial interest in an empty Trust.

Online “Truthology” marketing material was removed after the land-share scam was exposed in local newspapers in 2016.

Tweed Daily News: "Living in a Nightmare"

Many assurances were given to potential investors that development approval was in process, yet Darwin and Brennock never applied for the required permits, knowing that the land was protected as water catchment for a proposed future drinking water dam.

More than 21 investors who had purchased the communal property at Mt Burrell, were forcibly driven off the land during 2016-17, without return of their funds. 

Despite much pretense, investors have received no restitution as Darwin and Brennock attempt to take private control of the land through a deceptive “phoenix move.”

Adrian Brennock aka "Jimmy the Maggot"

Darwin and Brennock, after fleecing the purchasers of the 640 acre property, are again rattling the can, asking credulous investors to believe their "new promises" and give them money, as they aspire to purchase 3,000 acres and form another “Village Community” on adjoining property, together with landowner Peter van Lieshout.

Landowner Peter van Lieshout

"Mount Warning Eco Village” is again marketed by Darwin and Brennock with assurances that dwelling is permitted, and cabins are offered for sale. Yet the intended "Eco Village", like the failed "Bhula Bhula Village Community", is located on environmentally protected land. Again, there is NO DA in place for multiple occupancy on the land, and no application for development of a "Village Community" has been submitted to Tweed Shire Council, although Darwin and Brennock are, as before, loudly stating their "intention to extend existing permissions".

Mt Warning Eco Village - baiting with "alternative lifestyle" lures

The continual soliciting by Darwin and Brennock, of "mezzanine finance," "loans,” “advances," “ethical investments,” "superannuation funds"   and “pre-DA purchase of home-sites" on environmentally protected land without development approval has been ongoing since 2014. This is a SCAM that has already left more than 20 investors with trust betrayed and shattered lives, defrauded of over $2 million.

Buyer Be Warned!