Is Henry Kaye back in business already?

For those of us wondering what Henry Kaye has been up to lately, this could be the answer:

On 19-20 March, a company called “Evolution Education” is running a property spruiking event in Melbourne. Check out how they pitch it:

Let me ask you a high level question…

Is your ability to come up with the initial 10% Deposit on your investment property leaving you locked out from the property market?

If the answer is YES, then you need to book yourself into the next Property Express Weekend live workshop!

By attending this unique live 2 Day event, you will learn how ‘To Manufacture A 10% Deposit In Your Next Property Purchase!’, which include;
10% Deposit rebate from the developer at the settlement of the property.
10% Gifted deposit from the developer when buying property.
Long Term Settlement, not the Contract Price.
Residential Lending plus Personal Loans in order to obtain 100 percent Finance.
Buying properties via Equity Partners and Joint Ventures (JV’s).

And here is the really cool part of this live event!

Not only will the event be covering each one of the 5 above topics in great detail, we will also be showing you actual deals that we have personally put together for some private clients this year.

Yep, that’s right. It sounds a lot like the hype used to push property scams that Henry Kaye has previously run through Jamie McIntyre of 21st Century Education and Greg Klopper of Global 1. Very much like it.

But there’s more…

Check out the line up of spruikers, Henry Kaye has put the band back together. Steven Molnar, Konrad Bobilak, Cameron Fisher and Stephen McClatchie: all experienced seminar property spruikers who’ve pushed Henry’s past scams via Jamie McIntyre’s company.

The CEO of Evolution Education is Chris Freeman. There are four speakers appearing at the event: Steven Molnar, Konrad Bobilak, Cameron Fisher and Stephen McClatchie.

All five of them are known associates of Jamie McIntyre. All have been involved with his many and varied property scams in the past. In fact, they were publicly spruiking for McIntyre as recently as 12-18 months ago.

So let’s break down what we know:

• Jamie McIntyre and Henry Kaye are very close and long-term friends.

• To date every time Jamie McIntyre has run a property scam, Henry Kaye has been behind it. Every time. McIntyre clearly isn’t bothered by having his links to Kaye exposed, because he’s continued to work with him after each bout of negative publicity.

• Henry Kaye likes to stay out of sight, so in the past he’s run a number of his property scams by having Michael Grochowski front them using his company, the infamous “Project Management (Aust) Pty Ltd”.

• The last year has been tough on McIntyre, Kaye and their associates. ASIC is pursuing Grochowski, Kaye’s sister Julia Feldman, Greg Klopper, Rowan Burn and others. ASIC has also wound up a number of McIntyre’s companies, and Project Management Australia is gone too.

• Greg Klopper has shut down Global 1, so Henry isn’t seeing any revenue from him.

• Jamie McIntyre is valiantly trying to spruik on, but he’s had so much bad publicity for his role in the land banking scam that his sales have dried up. Of course Jamie still finds the odd sucker now and then, but there aren’t many marks left who are gullible enough to buy a scammy property deal without at least Googling Jamie’s name.

• Henry Kaye needs a new sales channel and he needs one urgently. He’s been shut out of the land option business for a year now and that’s got to hurt.

What’s interesting is the blatant and obvious way these guys have gone about it. All five of them are well known as Henry and Jamie’s boys, yet they’ve made no attempt to keep any of them out of public view. They’re all named in the event promotion, front and centre.

They’ve even set up shop for Evolution Education at 72 York Street, South Melbourne. That’s just a couple of doors down from the old Project Management Australia office at number 92, so they’re certainly not trying to hide.

So Henry has set up a new seminar company and stacked it with his favourite spruikers from Jamie McIntyre’s company. He’s put the band back together!

The loser in all this of course is McIntyre. He’s out in the cold now, since he’s no more use to Henry. His name has been blackened beyond redemption and he’ll be mired in court cases from the land option scam for years to come. Oh well, at least he’ll have Greg Klopper for company as he’s in the same boat.

It’ll be interesting to see how long it will be before ASIC takes an interest in this new operation. Until then, the good people of Melbourne will just to be careful to give Henry Kaye’s 5-man property spruiking team a wide berth, for the sake of their financial health.

Be careful, everyone. Henry Kaye is still out there, still scheming and he still has his eye on your hard-earned savings.

Global 1 collapses and Greg Klopper crawls back under a rock

Ahhh, yes! This blog received a very welcome Christmas present with Greg Klopper and Global 1 finally reaching the end of the road. Not with a bang (at least not yet), but rather with a whimper. Let me explain…

Recapping the last few months

“Oops, I tanked my company by hooking up with Henry Kaye!”

Back in mid-August we heard the news that ASIC was going after land banking scams. Their main focus initially was Jamie McIntyre’s schemes, but they flagged clearly that the Global 1 scam was in their crosshairs too:

Watchdog moves on land banking as investors fear losses

Similar schemes operating in Melbourne’s outer west and spruiked by a separate but closely related property firm, Market First, have so far avoided ASIC action.

Feldman has been a key player in both 21st Century and Market First. Insiders confirm that she plays an identical marketing role in both Market First and 21st Century and has had a role in most of schemes.

Also central to the operations of both Market First and 21st Century is Greg Klopper, the man behind Global1, and another name linked to Kaye, whose company organises major spruiking events for both 21st Century and Market First based on its massive database.

And…

The growing list of projects have so far failed to produce a single house, much less the helipads, sky lounges, and waterfront lifestyles depicted in brochures and videos used to promote them.

The outlandish claims of “lifestyle” precincts and “architectural masterpieces” in the backblocks of Melbourne’s outer west are now something of a joke among the property and development industry.

Fairfax Media has confirmed from several well-placed sources that at the very time Market First was stepping up pressure on investors to tip money into the Foscari scheme, those behind it were trying to on-sell their own project.

Then late September saw a day of evidence on land banking scams given to the senate enquiry into financial advice. Three victims of Greg Klopper & Rowan Burn’s scam gave evidence on how they were sucked in and fleeced of their hard-earned money:

Economics References Committee – 30/09/2015 – Scrutiny of financial advice

And then, finally, in mid December came the news we’d all been waiting for: at last ASIC was finally moving on the Global 1 scam property companies. Presumably they’d been preoccupied with Jamie McIntyre, but at last had enough free bandwidth to sort out Greg and co too.

Watchdog moves on Henry Kaye-linked scheme

A massive land banking scam linked to notorious property spruiker Henry Kaye is in tatters after the corporate regulator moved to wind up housing projects in Melbourne’s outer west and Bendigo.

The two projects – among about 10 such schemes in Victoria and Queensland – are known as Foscari in Wyndham and Hermitage in Bendigo.

The ASIC statement noted that Foscari and Hermitage projects were not close to completion and “appear to be incapable of completion due to the financial position of the development companies”.

The focus of a Fairfax investigation early this year, the Foscari project had been spruiked as an “iconic, architectural masterpiece” by shady marketing firm Market First. But years after it was flogged in manipulative and misleading seminars it remains a disused rubbish dump in Palmers Road, Truganina.

In March, Fairfax Media revealed that ASIC was investigating a string of projects linked to Kaye and or his sister, Julia Feldman. The inquiry followed Fairfax revelations in January about Foscari and a second Melbourne project, Veneziane in Melton.

Ha, “manipulative and misleading seminars” – Greg Klopper’s specialty!

What happens now?

Of course Greg was a director of Market First, along with Rowan Burn and Henry Kaye’s sister, Julia Feldman. That means he could face prosecution for his role in the company, along with the others, and ASIC could go after his assets. Oh, Greg!

But wait, there’s more! More good news, that is.

Business partners no longer.

Greg Klopper’s seminar company, Global 1 Events, was at best marginally profitable without the land banking scam. All of Greg’s profits in recent years came from the scheme; it propped up the rest of his business.

So when the scandal broke at the start of 2015, Greg’s initial plan was to batten down the hatches and wait for it all to blow over. Then he would start up the scam again and continue business as usual.

Unfortunately, without the money from the land banking scam, Global 1 was burning cash and it soon became apparent that the scandal wasn’t going to blow over any time soon. Between the senate enquiry, ASIC investigation and a class action lawsuit, Greg was getting an uncomfortable level of scrutiny that was clearly going to continue for a while.

Then things took a turn for the worse when Global 1’s long-suffering speakers started to jump ship. No one wanted the reputational headache of being linked to Henry Kaye and his crooked promoter.

One by one, Global 1’s roster of speakers finished up their commitments and ended their relationship with the company. The last one to go was the mainstay of Greg’s business, platitude-spouting chiropractor John Demartini, whose team had been urging an end to the Global 1 relationship for a long time.

Concerned Global 1 customer #1

At last Greg realised the game was up. With no money coming in, he had to downsize drastically and urgently. In fact, he shrank Global 1 down to the size of a shoebox and then put it away on the top shelf of his cupboard.

As of today, on Global1’s page for upcoming events, the only name still showing is Ben Harvey, a man who’s always been unconcerned about damage to his reputation. After all, Ben started out with Global 1 by running the sales team and signing clients up after Rowan Burn pitched land banking from the stage.

All of Global 1’s events for 2016

While Ben is happy to whore himself out for a buck, even his events are not being run by Global 1 but rather by Ben himself. Greg is merely promoting them as an affiliate, linking to Ben’s website and earning a small commission on the back end.

Concerned Global 1 customer #2

Global 1 quietly moved out of their office near Kings Cross, and today the only address for the company is a PO box in North Sydney.

All the employees have now gone, leaving only Greg and a couple of offshore outsourcers.

Greg rages as his reputation is tarnished

The former inner circle of Global 1, Greg’s leadership team, say that the thing which upsets Greg far more than anything else, is when his name is mentioned in coverage of the Henry Kaye scam.

News stories about Rowan Burn or Market First ripping off unsuspecting investors: meh, no biggie. But a media stories names “Greg Klopper” along with Henry Kaye…well, Greg just blows his top! It’s been a regular source of amusement for everyone watching the scandal unfold; as if Greg truly believes he still has a reputation to protect, aside from being known as Henry Kaye’s bitch.

That’s why he folded Global 1 so quietly and slipped away to crawl back under his rock. He didn’t want any attention drawn to his business partnership with infamous scammer Henry Kaye.

Remember all the effort Greg was putting into online reputation management at the start of this year?

Greg Klopper’s damage control begins

Many of those astroturfing sites have gone dark now, as Greg sees now reason to pay for hosting just to protect the reputation of an inactive company.

And remember how I predicted that Greg would change the domain details to remove his name and link them to some stooge instead? Well I was right, though I didn’t predict that Internet entrepreneur Domenic Carosa would be the one to help Greg out. Yes, Domenic had one of his employees take over as the contact for the marketfirst.com.au domain and spare Greg the exposure.

Whois response for marketfirst.com.au:

Domain Name	marketfirst.com.au
Last Modified	18-Mar-2015 08:42:10 UTC
Status	ok
Registrar Name	NetRegistry
Registrant	Market First
Registrant ID	OTHER None given
Eligibility Type	Other
Eligibility Name	Market First
Eligibility ID	WA BN 0249464V (WA)
Registrant Contact ID	KETR1037
Registrant Contact Name	Trevor Kenney
Registrant Contact Email	trevor.kenney@digitalventures.com.au
Tech Contact ID	C0004746-AR
Tech Contact Name	Trevor Kenney
Tech Contact Email	trevor@dv5.net
Name Server	ns1.webcity.com.au
Name Server IP	203.17.36.33
Name Server	ns2.webcity.com.au
Name Server IP	203.17.36.4
Name Server	ns3.webcity.com.au
Name Server IP	116.0.23.249
DNSSEC	unsigned

 

Ah, but it won’t work. It can’t: there are now too many high profile (and high PageRank) articles about Greg’s involvement in Henry Kaye’ scam. It can’t ever be covered up now, the names Greg Klopper and Henry Kaye are inextricably linked, forever. Just like Jamie McIntyre and Henry Kaye have been linked for years, even before this latest scandal.

The best news of all

This is all very satisfying personally, but the best news is simply the fact that as we head into 2016, Australian property investors have one less scam to beware of. They are a little safer than before.

With Greg and Jamie out of action, Henry Kaye has no sales channel for his crooked schemes – at least until he recruits the next rube to front his scheme, but that will take some time. And who knows, perhaps the ASIC investigation into Greg and Jamie’s schemes will put a more permanent stop to them and Henry Kaye. Jail time would be nice, but probably unlikely. Stripping them of their assets or bankruptcy would be nearly as good in terms of preventing future scams.

That’s something to hope for in the new year, as the various investigations and law suits continue to unfold, with ever-more press coverage at every step. Here’s to crossing our fingers for a great result.

Greg, Rowan, Henry and Jamie make the news again

How reassuring to see that Fairfax are not letting up in their coverage of the whole big Henry Kaye–Jamie McIntyre–Greg Klopper–Global 1 Events–Rowan Burn–Market First–Michael Grochowski–Julia Feldman land banking clusterfuck.

The Global 1 Events team: before and after their name was dragged through the mud by the Henry Kaye land banking scam.

A long & detailed article published yesterday provides an update on ASIC’s latest efforts to shut down Henry Kaye, along with his front men/puppets Jamie McIntyre and Greg Klopper, for good.

It’s not pretty at all. So far as the unwitting suckers investors are concerned, describing the ugly mess into which their money has vanished as a “clusterfuck” is an understatement. Here’s the latest Fairfax story:

Watchdog moves on land banking as investors fear losses

At present, Jamie McIntyre and his brother Dennis are at the top of ASIC’s hit list.

But this story is a comforting reminder that Greg Klopper of Global 1 Events and his frontman/spruiker Rowan Burn are still on ASIC’s to-do list.

That’s a good thing: just like Jamie McIntyre, Greg Klopper needs to be shut down for good before he can restart the scam with Henry Kaye.

Land banking salesman Greg Klopper with self-help “guru” John Demartini

Word of the scam has spread widely through Global 1’s database of self-help seminar junkies, built from marketing of John Demartini events. Greg scammed hundreds of those clients and now they’ve all received the “we’re sorry” letters from Slater & Gordon after the firm realised it had been unwittingly working with Henry Kaye.

You can’t keep something like that covered up, so there’s been much discussion of the Henry Kaye-backed land option scam among Global 1’s fans of Demartini. It’s going to be hard to flog more scam property investments to those clients when Greg is ready to kick things off with his new spruiking frontman, who I’ll call “Replacement-for-Rowan”.

Kahlia Ericson tries to rent out the old Market First Group office on Greg Klopper’s instructions

To get around that, Greg has been building new client databases on new topics, so there will be little overlap with the “poisoned” Demartini database.

Featuring prominently in that venture is Ryan Deiss, a baby-faced Internet marketing guru from the USA. As Deiss was getting into bed with Global 1 he was warned of their tie-in with Henry Kaye, the closest Australian equivalent to Bernie Madoff-type character.

But Deiss showed his character by ignoring the warning and disregarding the harm that could be caused to unsuspecting Australian attendees at his event. Like Kaye and Klopper, Deiss chose money over integrity.

Klopper’s company Global 1 Events recently ran an Australian version of Deiss’ regular US-based Internet marketing event, “Traffic and Conversion Summit” in Sydney.

For selling a piece of his soul to Greg and his property spruiking mates, Deiss walked away with a bag of cash.

Janine Allis, Ryan Deiss and Greg Klopper on stage at Traffic and Conversion Summit Australia

And Greg got what he wanted too: he used Deiss’ name and brand to pull in lots of new names for his email list – all aspiring Internet marketers, most of whom have never been to a Demartini event and who haven’t heard about Greg’s ties to Henry Kaye.

In other words: Greg picked up a ton of fresh meat for the next incarnation of his and Henry’s land banking scam.

Also featuring in yesterday’s story is Michael Grochowski, Henry Kaye’s bagman, fixer and puppet. Kaye of course was banned from running a company by ASIC, so can’t be seen to be in control of a scheme; having Grochowski sign all the paperwork avoids any problems with the corporate plod.

Plus, Kaye can’t be seen meeting with either Greg Klopper or Jamie McIntyre. Australian punters are a bit naive about those two sharks, but they would never touch an investment if they knew Henry Kaye was behind it!

Don’t get me wrong: both Jamie and Greg do meet regularly with Henry, plus all the calls and emails. It’s just all kept very secret squirrel, so that Henry stays safely in the shadows. For a long time, Henry used the personal email address reconsultco@gmail.com; when ASIC took a peek into that account, they found a ton of emails between Henry, Klopper, McIntyre, Grochowski, Feldman and their foot soldiers. It will make for fascinating reading when it goes public.

Ah, it’s going to be an exciting senate enquiry!

You can be sure the Fairfax reporters will be there for every minute of it, so there are going to be a lot more stories like yesterday to air all the dirty laundry as it’s revealed. I can’t wait!

Another Henry Kaye company collapses

No, not Global 1. Or 21st Century Education. Unfortunately. Hopefully both these companies will have their day or reckoning soon.

Today it’s the company that was supposedly going to build the development in Bendigo that Jamie McIntyre flogged to all his seminar going victims:

Land banking company linked to Henry Kaye collapses

Of course, McIntyre’s previous project outside Shepparton collapsed in exactly the same way. So, was the Bendigo project ever going to be built? It seems clear that it wasn’t, and this is how Henry operates.

We’ll learn more about Global 1’s dubious development in western Melbourne when Greg Klopper is hauled in to the senate inquiry later this year.

Here comes ASIC

More bad news for Greg Klopper today, with the first published confirmation of the ASIC investigation which is giving him sleepless nights and making his speakers nervous:

Henry Kaye probed over $100 million schemes

The key paragraph is this one:

“Fairfax Media has obtained ASIC documents detailing its new investigation of Kaye, McIntyre, his brother Dennis, seminar organiser Global 1, and lawyers Darren Eliau and Ben Skinner from legal firm Evans Ellis, formerly known as Clamenz Evans Ellis.”

Well, if any good can come of this then hopefully Global 1’s unfortunate clients will get at least some of their money back from this scam.

How could you, Greg? How could you do a deal with a spruiker like Henry Kaye and rip off so many clients who trusted you?

It’s shameful.

The Age digs up the whole dirty story: Jamie McIntyre, Global 1, Greg Klopper, Slater & Gordon – in bed with Henry Kaye

In a lovely piece of investigative journalism – the old school stuff that’s all too rare these days – journalists at The Age newspaper have dug up all the details of Henry Kaye’s dodgy land option scam. They published their stories today, and what a fascinating read they make!

Kaye continues to conjure

How to be more like Jamie McIntyre: Inside a spruiker’s seminar

Henry Kaye back in business: Doubts over small investors’ $100 million stake in questionable property investment schemes

OK, so this isn’t too much skin off Jamie McIntyre’s nose. He’s been linked to Henry Kaye repeatedly over the years to the point where most people assume there’s something dodgy going on due to the association. Add to that his repeated run-ins with ASIC and it’s clear he’s NOT someone you’d trust with your hard-earned.

But it’s all new for Greg Klopper and his long-suffering team at Global 1 Events. They’ve managed to keep their dodgy dealings quiet for 4 years – which is much longer than I ever expected them to. Greg didn’t do it on his own, he’s simply not that sharp. No, he had Henry’s unethical law firm waiting to slap a lawsuit on anyone who considered speaking up, and Henry’s usual team of grunts on hand to make anonymous death threats to silence people.

Still, it was inevitably going to get out sooner or later. Which begs the question of what on earth Greg was thinking? He went into business with Henry knowing that when it came out his reputation would be trashed, and indeed now it has: he’s the new Jamie McIntyre of his industry.

People are distancing themselves faster than you can say “plausible deniability”. You can be sure that John Demartini‘s people are re-reading his contract with Global 1 under instructions to find a get-out loophole. Squeaky-clean Ryan Deiss of Digital Marketer is doubtless doing the same, no doubt ruing the day (quite recently) that he signed it. Benjamin Harvey isn’t going anywhere: Global 1’s business is too lucrative to him and besides, he doesn’t yet have much of a brand to be tarnished by the links to Henry.

So why did Greg faceplant his whole business with the Henry Kaye deal? I think he basically just didn’t think it through. Greg isn’t super bright, but he is renowned for his willingness to chase a dollar regardless of ethics.

Everyone who’s dealt with Greg comes away noting that he has no real mission or purpose behind what he does, it’s only about the money. So when Henry’s frontpeople, Michael Grochowski and Julia Feldman, put some big juicy commission projections in front of Greg, he simply gave in to his natural Pavlovian response. And that put him on the path to today’s predicament.

Oh dear, Greg!

Greg Klopper becomes desperate to silence this whistleblower

What a great way to end the week! I received an email today from wordpress.com, who host this blog:

Hello,

We have received the following complaint regarding your WordPress.com site.
After review, we have determined that there is insufficient cause to substantiate a claim of trademark infringement. Therefore, we will not take any action against your site at this time.

This notice is forwarded for your reference only, and requires no response on your part.

— BEGIN COMPLAINT —

Email Address: greg@global1.com.au
Official trademark registration details and information, including the
registration number and a link to this information: Australian Government IP
Australia trade mark number 1538924 registered on 4 February 2013.
First Name: Greg
Last Name: Klopper
Company Name: Global 1 Training Pty Ltd
Address Line 1: Suite 1106, 100 William Street Woolloomooloo
Address Line 2:
City: Sydney
State/Region/Province: New South Wales
Zip/Postal Code: 2011
Country: Australia
The trademark that is allegedly being infringed: Global 1
The URL of the WordPress.com site being reported:
https://global1henrykaye.wordpress.com
The exact content/aspect of the site being reported: Domain name in addition
to references throughout the blog
A clear and detailed explanation of how the above content is in violation of the trademark in question, thus creating consumer confusion: The trade mark name ‘Global 1’ is being used both in the domain name of the blog as well as throughout the blog.

It is being used in relation to event management services. The blog identifies services run by Global 1 Training Pty Ltd, provides pictures of our employees in addition to various guest speakers used at past events. The use of the trade mark in the blog as well as in the domain name is causing confusion to the reader who would believe it to be a blog hosted, written and endorsed by Global 1 Training Pty Ltd. This is in clear breach of the obligations contained in Section 120 of the Trade Marks Act 1995.

The trade mark is being used without my authority or licence.

Despite numerous searches and enquiries, I am unable to identify the host of the blog or the person responsible.

I require the blog to be removed in its entirety.

I have a good faith belief that use of the trademark as described above is an infringement of the rights granted under United States and/or foreign
trademark law.: Yes
I understand that a copy of this notice, including any contact information I provided above, will be forwarded to the blog owner.: Yes
Signed on this date of (today’s date, MM/DD/YYYY): 12.02.15
Signature (your digital signature is legally binding): Greg Klopper

Time: February 11, 2015 at 10:39 pm
IP Address: 203.87.57.74
Contact Form URL: http://automattic.com/trademark-policy/

Hmm, interesting. Seems like Greg is getting desperate to shut this blog down…

Even with the story splashed all over the Australian media, even with a class action lawsuit pending against himself, Rowan Burn, Julia Feldman and the Market First team – even with all that going on, he took time out to whine about this blog.

He’s still trying to cover this whole mess up. Sweep it under the carpet.

This is perhaps the best sentence of Greg’s complaint:

“The use of the trade mark in the blog as well as in the domain name is causing confusion to the reader who would believe it to be a blog hosted, written and endorsed by Global 1 Training Pty Ltd“.

What do you think, dear reader?

Do you think there is even the slightest chance that a visitor could mistakenly think this blog was “written and endorsed” by Global1? Does it read anything at all like a blog that Greg & co would write themselves? Or is Greg just being a jerkoff?

Let me (and Greg) know by leaving a comment below. Or send Greg an email if you’re so inclined.

The news story finally breaks

Well, after more than 3 years of shonkiness, all the players involved got some lovely press coverage today!

Henry Kaye link revealed to Melbourne land banking schemes – Property Observer

Slater and Gordon rattled by Henry Kaye link – Sydney Morning Herald

Napthine government tipped in $520,000 to troubled housing scheme linked to Henry Kaye’s family – The Age

The life and times of Henry Kaye – The Age

Greg Klopper, Managing Director of Global1 Events

Good. It’s taken far too long, and while this has dragged on god-knows-how-many people have been ripped off by Henry, Global 1, Rowan Burn and everyone involved.

Rowan Burn of Market First Group

I hope that they get at least some of their money back and the publicity helps stop this from happening again. But that might be too much to hope for, because Henry is unlikely to go to jail and there’s plenty of other spruikers still out there too.

I guess you’ve got to look on the bright side and take your wins where you find them. May justice be served.

Global 1 Events employees

Spruikers can’t hide their past online

Global1 Events’ property arm, Market First Group, has taken their Henry Kaye-supplied property projects off their website in an attempt to sweep their embarrassing past under the carpet.

Fortunately, on the Internet the past is always preserved! You can check out Henry’s glossy plans for Italian-themed units here:

https://web.archive.org/web/20140626073829/http://www.marketfirstgroup.com.au/our-projects

Will these homes ever actually be built? Henry’s track record suggests the odds are not good, and that investors are going to be disappointed.

UPDATE: Greg Klopper, John Anderson, Julia Feldman and the rest of the team at Market First Group/Global 1 Events have figured out how to purge that embarrassing page from the web archive. You’ll have to take my word for it that the glossy brochures for Veneziane and Foscari were absolutely gorgeous!

Henry Kaye is still selling property through seminars today

Global1 Events Christmas Logo

I’m a former employee of seminar company Global 1 Events, so forgive my anonymity but I signed an NDA at the time. I was never comfortable with the property side of the business, because all the property sold to seminar attendees was being supplied by Henry Kaye and his colleagues.

Henry Kaye has a day in court

There are a surprising number of people who knew this, and I always expected it to blow up into a scandal in the media, but somehow it never did. The company certainly kept a tight lid on things:

Early on we partnered with an external real estate company to process the property transactions because we didn’t have a licence. They managed to find out that the property was being sourced from Kaye’s company and went nuts, they didn’t want anything to do with us after that. Global 1 managed to keep them quiet with a combination of legal threats and a payoff to go away.

Several of the clients who bought options via that real estate company found out that the deal wasn’t kosher, but they all got a refund in the end which is perhaps why they didn’t talk.

Also, Global 1 fell out with an American speaker they partnered with a couple of years back and he threatened to go public with the Henry Kaye story. But he never did, so somehow the company kept him quiet too.

So the only person who seems to be talking about it is this guy:

Ripoff report: Global 1 Training / Market First Group

21st Century Property Direct

Here’s how it started…

Henry approached us through an intermediary, Michael Grochowski, back in 2011. He’d been working with our competitor 21st Century Education for years, but their seminar numbers had fallen to almost nothing because of negative publicity like this:

Land option country

Delving into the dark side of shadow brokers

House ‘idyll’ just barren paddock

So he wanted to team up with Global 1 because we were getting much bigger audiences with speakers like John Demartini, Cherie Barber and, later on, Steve McKnight and Mark Bouris.

The commissions offered were huge, and we weren’t very profitable at the time, so it was impossible to turn down. We made Rowan Burn the face of the new property business, Market First Group, and used the big name speakers to fill rooms so that we could pitch Henry’s land options to the large audiences. The other speakers had no idea what we and Rowan were up to – like everyone else, they had no idea that Henry was behind the scenes, pulling the strings.

Henry Kaye’s sister Julia Feldman was the property marketing manager at 21st Century and she worked with Grochowski to put all the marketing and sales collateral together for the land options we were selling.

The only change in product was that 21st Century had focussed on selling options in regional centres like Shepparton and Bendigo. For our clients, Henry got options in the outer western suburbs of Melbourne. So yes we could say we were selling property in a capital city, but if you know anything about Melbourne you’ll know that no one is likely to see much capital growth on undeveloped land out there for a long time yet.

Anyway, all this has been going on for years now and surprisingly no one seems to care. Real estate heavyweights in Melbourne all know what Kaye is up to, and a lot of the seminar industry knows that we were fronting his property sales.

Meanwhile, average investors are buying up these property deals without the benefit of knowing that they’re part of a Henry Kaye scheme – with all that entails for the likely impact on the risk & return on their investment.

I can’t believe ASIC isn’t all over this, that’s one of the reasons I got out.

More to follow.