Migration agent scandal

Barry Lane's memo to Hon. Scott Morrison ... Obsessed about backdoor boats, the minister has neglected the shonks at his front door ... Being dishonest is no disqualification for being a migration agent 

Memorandum to Hon Scott Morrison MP, Minister for Stopping The Boats

Re: Rudy Noel Frugtniet Registered Migration Agent #9686142

Dear Minister,

I know you're up to your neck in it at the moment – what with riots in detention centres, detainees dying, adults and kids self-harming plus judges and lawyers not playing for "Team Australia", and I don't want to add to your already heavy burden. 

However, you really should get a handle on some of your RMAs if you want to get on top of the latest allegations of fraud and corruption in your department. 

Take Rudy Noel Frugtniet for instance.  

The latest news is that the corporate cops at ASIC have struck him off the roll of credit providers. He was found to have provided misleading information and a lack of full disclosure as a credit licence application. 

Oh dear. Rudy has made a habit of this sort of thing. 

In an earlier life he tried twice to gain admission to practice as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of Victoria and was refused on both occasions because he just couldn't remember to tell the truth about his somewhat unsavoury past. 

We chronicled some of these adventures in November 2005. 

Justice Pagone in 2002 and Justice (Silver Tray) Gillard in 2005 both thought that the authorities were correct in refusing his applications for a ticket.

Someone in your department should have been keeping an eye on Rudy because he had obtained registration as a migration agent in October 1996. Silver Tray picked apart Frugtniet's sorry history and made a number of findings, including:  

• His evidence concerning his disclosure to the Migration Agents Registration Authority (MARA) demonstrated that he did not appreciate the seriousness of making a false declaration. He told the board of examiners that he did reveal in each annual registration application all matters concerning his criminal conduct from 1996 onwards. This evidence was highly doubtful.

• By a document declared on October 26, 1999 he applied for re-registration as an agent for the year to October 2000. He was asked the following question: "Are you the subject of any criminal charges still pending before a court, or have you ever been convicted of an offence which is not spent? Refer to Part VIIC Crimes Act 1914 (Cth) for a definition of a spent conviction." He replied "No", which was an incorrect answer because at the time he was facing nine charges relating to his employment at the ANZ Bank.

• He did not appreciate the implications of making a false declaration, which raised considerable concerns about his honesty and more importantly whether he is prepared to be frank about his past indiscretions. 

• He sought to explain the ANZ charges as "pay back by certain individuals, as a jury of my peers had previously acquitted me of the frivolous perjury charges, thereby vindicating my position". This was demonstrably wrong. Also, to suggest that his perjury charges were frivolous "is a gross distortion of the truth". 

• His letter of explanation to MARA was rambling, full of irrelevant detail and obviously aimed at creating confusion in the minds of the persons looking into his conduct. He was successful. MARA did not take any further action. 

That should've set off alarm bells at the Migration Agents Registration Authority or somewhere else in the bureaucracy. 

Silver Tray: his warnings ignored by MARA

Another cue for MARA to have a look at Rudy's file occurred on April 8, 2011 after HH Judge Pamela Jenkins at VCAT disqualified Rudy pursuant to s.2.2.6(2) of the Legal Profession Act for three years after it was found he had passed himself off as a qualified solicitor while appearing on behalf of a number of clients at the Werribee Magistrates Court on May 25, 2010. 

Rudy's "defence" was that, relying on the exception contained in s.2.2.2(1)(f) of the Legal Profession Act 2004, he had obtained a power of attorney from his clients and filed it with the court prior to his appearance.  

The principal problem with that contention was that the court had no record of the document, either in electronic or hard copy form, and Rudy had not mentioned the existence of the document to the presiding magistrate when his right to appear was challenged, nor had he shown a copy of it to opposing counsel. 

One would have thought that if Rudy thought he had a knock-out punch to underwrite his entitlement to appear, he would've thrown it, but he didn't. 

An appeal against the disqualification order was dismissed by the Court of Appeal on 13 August 2012

On December 5, 2013, an application for special leave to appeal to the High Court was also dismissed. 

On January 16, 2013, the Tax Practitioners Board terminated Rudy's registration as a tax agent and prohibited him from seeking registration for five years for misconduct which included, as you might, failing to mention that when he sought registration in 2008 he had twice been refused admission to practice as a legal practitioner in 2001 and 2004.

An application for a stay of those orders was refused by senior member John Handley of the AAT on March 12 2013. 

In the course of his judgment, Handley observed that:

"I became disturbed, when the applicant submitted, in relation to his conduct at the Werribee Magistrates Court that there are degrees of lying. I indicated to the applicant that his comment made me distinctly uncomfortable when the decision under review was based on a finding that he was not a fit and proper person. In response he asserted, as he said he did before VCAT, that he is a sole practitioner and the interpretation placed on that expression by the Magistrate and subsequently by VCAT was at a more heightened level.

The remainder of his submissions in support of his application to be granted a stay were without focus and rambling. They did not assist me in making a decision."

An appeal from that decision was dismissed by Mr Justice Murphy in the Federal Court on July 30, 2013. 

Morrison: would you buy a second hand refugee policy from this man?

Finally, it appears that ASIC decided that it was time for those seeking Rudy's assistance to borrow money that they will have to do so without him. 

On July 10, 2014, ASIC announced that it had permanently banned Rudy from engaging in credit activities on grounds which included, surprise, surprise, providing misleading information and failing to make full disclosure in his application for registration. 

On my count, the only "ticket" Rudy is left with is his entitlement to practise as a migration agent and surely any objective analysis of his past would indicate that it should be pulled at the first available opportunity.

So what about it Minister Morrison.