Latest / The Front / Whistleblower’s tale of a bankrupt tycoon’s NDIS ‘rort’

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Whistleblower’s tale of a bankrupt tycoon’s NDIS ‘rort’ · The Front

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, May fourteen, twenty twenty five. An expert posted
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: pictures of deathcap mushrooms in the Victorian Bush and the
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Crown allegers Aaron Patterson drove to the location. A day later,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: mycologist Tom May told Patterson's murder trial the death cap
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: doesn't grow in China. Despite the jury earlier hearing, Patterson
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: claimed to have bought the mushrooms at a Chinese grosser.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Patterson has pleaded not guilty and we're covering her trial
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: live at the Australian dot com.
• 0:38
  Speaker 2: Dot a U.
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  Speaker 1: The Liberal Party's first female leader, Susan Lee, says she'll
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: rebuild the coalition and factional allegiances and convince women to
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: vote for them. Australia's most vulnerable people need the fifty
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: billion dollar National Disability Insurance Scheme to make daily life possible,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: but whistleblowers say the government doesn't want to know about
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: alleged raughts. Today, how crime journo David Murray used his
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: shoe leather journalism skills to report a ripping NDIS scandal.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: David Murray is the Australian's National crime correspondent. Dave's been
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: covering this round for decades now, and one of the
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: advantages of being around for a while is that sometimes
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: familiar names pop up. Back in twenty fifteen, Dave was
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: a keen young journal at Brisbane's Courier Mail, where he
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: did a story about a man named Zafar Ikubal Khan.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Khan was being sued by husband and wife doctors from
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: the smaller city of Toowoomba Ellis and Margaret Gibson. Theyde
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: invested money in a business cahn't had created a dial
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: a doctor scheme where you could have a GP come
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: to your home for free. Thanks to a federal government rebate.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: It had all turned sour. This couple said that they
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: had put in more than a million dollars into this
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: business and alleged in a Supreme Court case that Zaphyr
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: had siphoned the money out and that basically the scheme
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: was frauded up by design. Now, this was a couple.
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: They weren't very well. They'd been through some pretty tough
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: times medically, and this business that had been set up
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: into woman basically opened for a single day from memory,
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: they saw something like three patients and then suddenly the
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: whole thing closed down and they ended up having to
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: take him to court. That settled out of court confidentially,
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: so we never actually got to find out what happened
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: with that case.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: No wrongdoing was proven in that matter. Now Dave's here
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: at The Australian, and earlier this year he started hearing
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: the same name. Far Khn't.
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: I got a message out at the Blue from someone saying, look,
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: you wrote this story almost ten years ago. Now you
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: might want to know that this man's popped his head
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: up again. You might be interested in having a chat
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: about some of the things that have been going on
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: with this business. And that's where it started for me.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: Zafar Khan has started a new business, Cocoon SDA Care,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: and it had a parent company called Horizon.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: Essentially, they weren't paying the staff. The staff had gone
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: around six weeks without getting their wages. It went back
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: a lot further than that. That staff hadn't been paid
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: their superannuation. They were checking their accounts to see what
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: I guess that accumulated, only to find that the business
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: was behind in its payments.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: The Australian's Reporter Kyle Road questions, A far khn't about
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: the alleged under payments. When Dave's story broke last week,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: do you.
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  Speaker 3: Have anything to say to your staff who haven't been paid?
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: I think NBA we'll repay them immediately.
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: Yes, Panics started settling in and the story started unraveling
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: from there, which is what we now know is that
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: in March, the National Disability Insurance Agency stopped automatically paying
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: for the services that this business was claiming, and that
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: caused obviously complete meltdown for this business. And we now
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: know that an investigation had been launched into this company
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: back in October last year by the NDIA. They did
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: their groundwork, they passed on information to another team inside
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: that agency. They decided they needed to rather than just
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: automatically pay this firm, they needed to run a fine
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: toothcomb over all their claims. There were suspicions of fraud.
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  Speaker 2: There are all sorts of other allegations and concerns raised
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: about this business, and that's only one aspect of this story.
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  Speaker 2: This case is now in the federal court. The company says,
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  Speaker 2: we need our money to continue operating. They want to
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  Speaker 2: stop the NDIA from doing what's called a manual audit
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  Speaker 2: or of claims, going through everything, every single claim. You
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  Speaker 2: can imagine how long that takes. This is a company
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  Speaker 2: that has taken in more than one hundred million dollars
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  Speaker 2: in NDIS funding in the past two years.
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  Speaker 1: The company's clients are some of Australia's most vulnerable people
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  Speaker 1: and they're in every state and territory.
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  Speaker 2: If you look at their pr material, they say they've
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: got a workforce of twenty four hundred. So it became
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  Speaker 2: apparent this was going to be a pretty big deal.
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  Speaker 2: If you've got a very big organization that can't pay
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  Speaker 2: its staff, then it was immediately apparent that's going to
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  Speaker 2: affect the care that's going to be offered to these
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  Speaker 2: vulnerable Australians who are relying in this company. One of
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  Speaker 2: the ways it's tires have been inflated really is inadvertently
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  Speaker 2: by coverage in the Australian Financial Review. They have something
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: called the Fast one hundred and this firm made that
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  Speaker 2: list last year at number fourteen on that list, was
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: flagged as one of the fastest growing firms in the country.
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  Speaker 2: They celebrated this achievement. This firm used it in their
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  Speaker 2: promotional material. And then in April this year, while they
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: were in the middle of this massive word that was
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: secretly going on in the background, an investigation that was
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: tearing apart all their books and looking at them, they
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: were attending an awards night for one of the best
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: places to Work in Australia and that was again an
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: AFAR event. They've got themselves a ticket. They didn't win,
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  Speaker 2: but they certainly used that event to promote themselves at
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  Speaker 2: the very time that they're being investigated.
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  Speaker 1: As recently as March twenty twenty five, Zafar Khan was
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: speaking about his business experience on a video podcast published
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: by Alexander Spencer accounting firm.
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  Speaker 4: To me, I think a droving taxi washing dishes, cleaning,
• 6:52
  Speaker 4: we should not be shamed off. We should be shamed off.
• 6:54
  Speaker 4: If we're being dishign essed we cheeto those, we should
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: be shamed off.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Khan told the Australia Alliaans Kyle Road his company hasn't
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: done anything wrong.
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  Speaker 4: They are hundred percent honest, hundred percent honest. Knowing in
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: the world. You know, to me, we don't want to
• 7:10
  Speaker 4: feed our children on around money. Know in the world.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Ndis participants who rely.
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: On your business safe. Yes, we are trying our best
• 7:18
  Speaker 4: to pass on to approved providers and we make sure
• 7:21
  Speaker 4: that transition is good. We have given instructions that no
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: care they are looked after.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: Real The context of this DAVE is that the National
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: Disability Insurance Scheme brought in by the previous Labor government
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: was intended to provide some certainty for the most disabled
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  Speaker 1: people who have very high expenses for day to day life.
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  Speaker 1: The cost of the NDIS is blowing out enormously on
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: one hand, because there's a range of disabilities which it's
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: treating it and controversies about whether people with autism, for example,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: should be included, and then on the other hand waste
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: and roads. Of course, nothing has been proven yet about cocoon,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: but just talking generally about the NDI is Is it
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: a surprise to you that kind of pot of money
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: has attracted people with an entrepreneurial spirit.
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: No, I don't think that would be a surprise to anyone.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: It is a huge amount of money, it's a massive program.
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  Speaker 2: It's there for a good reason to help the people
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: who need it most, but it's also attracting your unscrupulous
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: elements who are going to try to make a quick buck.
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: They're going to try to grow big very fast, getting
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: on the ground floor. That's one thing that's becoming apparent
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: to me in covering this story is that what we're
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: looking at here is a firm that has grown very big,
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: very quickly. And when that happens, you get corners cut.
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  Speaker 2: Your services can be compromised, safety can be compromised. And
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  Speaker 2: this is what happened with the founder or co founder
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  Speaker 2: of this company, z Afakhan many years ago in New Zealand.
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  Speaker 2: He had a taxi training business and it grew and
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: expanded and it went busts and he went bankrupt. Now
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  Speaker 2: Here he is showing up on this program with enormous
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  Speaker 2: amounts of government funding and trying to grow big very fast.
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  Speaker 2: Some of the information that I've been finding is that
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  Speaker 2: Zafar and he's co founder, Muhammad Latif, were involved in
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  Speaker 2: a company that failed audits NDIS audits back in twenty
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: twenty one, so four years ago. Yet they've still been
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: able to continue operating in this space. We now know
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: that there's been thirty two tip offs to federal authorities
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: over the last four or so years, and I'm getting told, yes,
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  Speaker 2: we are seeing a crackdown on the unscrupulous operators on
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: fraud that has been happening. It has been having an impact,
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: but it's a game of catch up. There's so much
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: money there, there's so many operators. It is so loose.
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  Speaker 2: Like the thing that stands out to me about the
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: operations of this company is that it has been able
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: to be so loose in its operations despite the sensitive
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: nature of what it's doing.
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  Speaker 1: Some of their clients are so vulnerable, like the case
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  Speaker 1: that you've reported of three women with complex disabilities who
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: went out for a regular visit to a hydrotherapy pull
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: in late twenty twenty three and came back to find
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: their gates to their house were padlocked. How could that
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: possibly have happened?
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  Speaker 2: It was quite remarkable, And I was getting tips about
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: this for a little while and trying to confirm it
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  Speaker 2: and going to various sources and asking what they knew
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  Speaker 2: about it, And eventually I spoke to a number of people.
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  Speaker 2: Among those was a woman who was a career for
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  Speaker 2: these three women, they had really complex care needs. One
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  Speaker 2: of them had multiple sclerosis, one of them had an
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: acquired brain injury. Two of them were unable to walk
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: without assistance. They required a lot of care. They go
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: out to their regular hydro therapy session in the morning.
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  Speaker 2: Two hours later they come back and they no longer
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: have a home. The padlocks have been put on the gates.
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  Speaker 2: They're barred because the owner of the house is being
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: forced into really this terrible position of having to force
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: them out of the property because they haven't been getting
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: paid rent by Kacunesdacre, this company that's now under investigation.
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  Speaker 2: This is all happening back in twenty twenty three. These
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  Speaker 2: three women had to go into emergency accommodation while this
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: was sorted out. I'm told this rental dispute had been
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: going on for quite some time. That have been a
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: number of years since the rent had been paid on
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: this property. And the owners, I'm told by the care
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: lovely people, they did their best. They were so apologetic,
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: but they simply couldn't continue on anymore. And this is
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: a thing. This business has been promoting itself as having
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: twenty four hundred employees, but when you look at the books,
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: there's less than half that number. It says it's got
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: hundreds of homes, but then you take a closer look
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: and these homes we're talking about some homes being built
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: by investors who've been promised very big returns, only to
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: see those returns not materialize. They've been devastated by their
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: dealing with this particular firm, with Zafa Khan, the co founder,
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: who by all accounts, is the person pulling the strings,
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: even though he's not the person on the paperwork for
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: the company.
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  Speaker 3: Has your business been claiming for services it didn't provide?
• 12:16
  Speaker 4: Never, not even one percent, not even one cent, not
• 12:19
  Speaker 4: even one No one can prove it. We are pretty
• 12:21
  Speaker 4: transplanted company. Honest company, incredible company, yes, and even real
• 12:25
  Speaker 4: mind even.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: Coming up a former executive blows the whistle on cocuon SDA.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: One of the people who's come forward to speak to
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: you is Tanya Quinn, who was briefly chief executive of
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: Kakun SDA. Care what's she telling you about her attempts
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: to blow the whistle.
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  Speaker 2: This is just one of those incredible stories that just
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: seemed to come out of nowhere. She worked for this
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: firm as their chief executive for a matter of days
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: max a week before she realized. She says, how diet
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: things were within this company, how problematic their operations were.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: She started asking questions, and within that week her access
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: was cut and she was out of the firm, so
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: soon after she'd been announced being the one who's going
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: to be leading it, and she has provided evidence that
• 13:28
  Speaker 2: she went to the then NDIS Minister Bill Shorten about
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: that at the time.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: We've used a voice actor to bring you the words
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: spoken by whistleblower Tanya Quinn.
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: I downloaded everything I could. I went directly to Bill Shorten,
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: went to ask went to Quality and Safeguards, Ato just
• 13:47
  Speaker 3: gave them all the information I had, and then nothing happened.
• 13:51
  Speaker 3: When I followed up, I had a meeting with the
• 13:53
  Speaker 3: NDIS and they took the details and said we'll call you,
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: we'll get you back in to sign your statement, and
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: then they never ever did, and I'm still waiting. I
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: saw something online where the NDIS was talking about protections
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: for whistleblowers. I sort of responded to him, I said,
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: you're misrepresenting the situation. I came forward with what I
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: think is like a massive scandal, and I think I've
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: got evidence. We're talking hundreds of millions of dollars, and
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: you've offered me nothing, no protection.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: And now she's watching all of this unfold and in
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: the stories that we've been covering, in the investigations that
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: are now ongoing, and she's saying, I told you this
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: a couple of years ago.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: David Murray is The Australian's National crime correspondent. You can
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: follow Dave's reporting anytime at the Australian dot com dot
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: au