Deception

By Gi Linda--

I fully accept responsibility for my error. I suspected the charming blue-eyed visionary was lying when he told me that due to a great spiritual epiphany he was no longer a dishonorable money-grubbing bankster, but had become an honest man. Warning bells rang loud and clear, but I didn't want to hear.

I am one the investors who were defrauded of land ownership by Adrian Brennock after paying in total over $2 million for purchase of properties, including the iconic Sphinx Rock Cafe at Mt Burrell, NSW.

Between February-July 2015, I was twice taken to view property at Mt Burrell and offered membership of an intentional community with co-ownership of the land, including a 3-acre home site for private use and shared use of the rest of the land.

 

Mark Darwin sells home-sites without development approval in 2015

Prospective investors were informed that:

— the proposed development was under advisement of community lawyer Wroth Wall and Czech lawyer Michal Hachek with support of investors at Nobel Law;
— multiple occupancy was permissible;
— town planners were employed;
— development approval for the project was in process;
— temporary dwellings would be allowed by Tweed Shire Council.

All these representations later proved false.

In July 2015, I was invited by co-founder and marketing manager Mark Darwin to invest in the “last available home-site” in reliance on his personal promises. In the absence of a written contractual agreement, Darwin presented an unsigned deed to a supposed trust with an “application” for a “unit,” which I did not sign.

I was dubious from the outset, alerted by online complaints, and I was concerned about the strangely convoluted legal structure he proposed as a means of establishing investor co-ownership of the properties he was offering.

Reassured only by the involvement of Wroth Wall, Michal Hachek and Nobel Law, local lawyers of good repute, in August 2015, I paid $120,000 to the trust account of community Lawyer Wroth Wall  for shared ownership and use of the properties. I then began to live on the Mt Burrell property in a Fiat Ducato mobile home and cultivated a garden with flowers and vegetables, as permissible under zoning regulations.

Gi's Garden, 2015

However, after my funds were paid for purchase of the Mt Burrell properties, I did not receive a receipt of payment. No interest in land was registered, as expected. Within two months those who asked for accountability faced bullying hostility, as Adrian Brennock appeared to rise to the position of a reckless cult leader in the emerging community.

By October 2015, co-ownership of the properties had not been transferred to investors as promised. Brennock provoked internal conflicts by making ad hominem attacks and false accusations against those who attempted to oppose them or expose their mendacity.

Mark Darwin new motor bike

A finance committee established by investors to provide financial oversight reported that money was missing and short-term loans had not been repaid, while Brennock refused accountability and hid all bank statements. Investors who asked questions about evident fiduciary misconduct were denigrated, menaced and marginalized.

I was very quickly disillusioned by the failure of Brennock to fulfill marketing representations. All investors had been promised co-ownership of the properties through membership of an Incorporated Association. Instead, the properties were bought, using investors’ funds, through private companies in which Brennock maintained controlling directorships and shareholdings. 

Observing that finance was being misappropriated and that Brennock was attempting to leverage assets purchased with investors’ funds to profit financially and to acquire private ownership of multiple properties, I requested restitution of my investment. When restitution was denied, I withdrew from the community but continued to cultivate my garden on the property.

In February 6, 2016, without advising me or allowing a response, Brennock called for a vote to evict me from the property without return of my investment. The vote was rejected.

This polarized investors and split the community. Some supported Brennock regardless of his breach of promise and enabled the cultish control he was imposing. Followers agreed to allow Brennock’s private control of land title in exchange for permission to reside on the land in unapproved dwellings as unregistered “unit holders” in an unexecuted trust that owned nothing.

Illegal dwelling at Bhula Bhula Community, 2016

I was intimidated by the menacing behaviour of Brennock and his false accusations against me. I left the property on February 7, 2016 and sought legal help. I was advised that since litigation to recover my investment would be costly and probably futile, I  should file a fraud report with police, which I did, but the report was ignored.

In March 2016, Nobel Law warned of deceptive conduct by Brennock; they advised investors that no development application had been made with Tweed Shire Council, and that a report by town planner Darrell Andersen had been hidden by Brennock. Contrary to marketing representations, the report reveals that under State zoning regulations, multiple occupancy is prohibited on the property at 3222 Kyogle Rd, which is also protected as potential rainwater catchment.

Ten investors, realizing they had been defrauded, decided to exit Bhula Bhula Community  Village, and demanded restitution for non-fulfilment of marketing promises. 

After unsuccessfully attempting to negotiate a settlement, Nobel Law prepared a class action. In response, Brennock initiated an investigation of Nobel Law by the Law Society. The false charges were later dismissed, but instigation of the investigation effectively stopped the intended class action.

In August 2016, a year after taking my money, I was advised by puppet director in employ of Brennock, Steven McSween, that my “application” to join the Community was rejected without restitution. Three others who had also requested accountability received similar rejection notices from Brennock and McSween.

On October 4, 2016,  the Nimbin GoodTimes newspaper published my exposé, “The Truth About Truthology,” and I began reporting the events of the alleged fraud in an online blog on behalf of defrauded investors at thetruthabouttruthology.blogspot.com and mountwarningecovillagescam.blogspot.com.

The blogs warned that investors were bereft of life savings after responding to the deceptive “ethical investment opportunity” involving sale of home-sites without development approval on environmentally protected land where multiple occupancy is not permitted.

Darwin and Brennock reacted by filing defamation charges against me and Nimbin GoodTimes in NSW Supreme Court. Complaining that the article and the blogs caused their "unconventional business" financial loss, they demanded over $4 million compensation.

In bringing a malicious defamation case against me, Mark Darwin, Adrian Brennock, Phillip Dixon, Steven McSween and their lawyers, Stone Group all made false charges in perjured affidavits. They admit it has so far cost them more than $260,000 to avoid repaying the $120,000 that I mistakenly invested with them.

In 2017, they twice brought urgent injunctions requesting the blogs be removed by court order. They withdrew the first injunction when Justice Lucy McCallum began to unravel the fraud.  The second injunction including charges of injurious falsehood by Mt Warning Eco Village/Nightcap Village, was defeated with representation by Kieran Smark SC, after I received a successful referral to the Bar Association Pro Bono scheme. Costs were awarded against Darwin, but nothing has been paid.

It is my contention that the defamation claim is an abuse of process known as a "SLAPP action," Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation. The plaintiffs did not expect that all the evidence of the land-share scam would be revealed in an open court before an honest Judge. The action is a means of harassment, intended to crush me and warn other defrauded victims to keep silent.

The  final judgement of the defamation case, Darwin v Norman, is listed for a 7 day hearing in August 2019. My defence is truth.

In 2016, Tweed Shire Council initiated legal action in the Land and Environment Court to enforce compliance with removal of unauthorized dwellings. Brennock and Dixon stalled Council’s action and continued for a year, until mid 2017, to sell “home-sites” without development approval.

Scoffing at court directions, Brennock's defiant followers made secrecy pacts and stayed on the property. Some built camps, others constructed permanent residences. After Tweed Council settled with Brennock, his supporters were evicted and their homes  dismantled.

Phillip Morandini's yurt at Bhula Bhula Community, 2017

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