Lobbyists of Clubs NSW have called for pokies whistleblower Troy Stolz to stop raising small amounts of money from a large number of people online to fund his lawsuit. They have also demanded he return the already received donations or face further legal action.
According to Mr Stolz’s claims, he has been financially ruined as a result of a federal legal battle between him and his former employer, ClubsNSW. The lawsuit has been related to a number of disclosures the former employee of ClubsNSW made regarding the industry’s alleged widespread failures to stay in line with counter-terrorism financing and anti-money laundering laws.
As Mr Stolz needed some financial help to fund his case, he turned to a popular fundraising platform called GoFundMe. So far, he managed to raise a total of AU$3,395.
However, he recently got a legal notice from Thomson Geer, who acted on behalf of ClubsNSW and required him to immediately put an end to the fundraising campaign and return all the money he got as donations from the public.
According to the firm, there were incorrect and misleading comments regarding the legal cost faced by Mr Stolz and the nature of documents he had to present to the ClubsNSW.
ClubsNSW Requires Stolz Removes His GoFundMe Campaign Page
Stolz was warned to make sure he removes the GoFundMe page of his fundraising campaign by Monday of this week, or the operator would direct its concerns to the platform and the court. According to the letter, the operator finds it would not be right for Stolz to keep the campaign page in order to try to raise more funds from the general public.
The whistleblower told The Guardian that he expected ClubsNSW to go to some extremes to punish him. Apart from taking him to the federal court, the operator had previously demanded that he paid their legal costs estimated at about AU$150,000, and now, it was trying to deprive his supporters of the chance to help him with the campaign through the aforementioned fundraising platform.
As reported by The Guardian, it remains unclear whether ClubsNSW had taken the matter to court or addressed the GoFundMe website.
The case has triggered a strong reaction in federal parliament.
In its most recent orders, the court required Mr Stolz to hand over some communications he had with Andrew Wilkie, an independent Parliament. The communication occurred before Mr Wilkie unsuccessfully tried to table a document, which allegedly showed that only 5-10% of the clubs in NSW were in line with counter-terrorism financing and anti-money laundering laws.
For the time being, correspondence between Members of Parliament and constituents is protected in some cases under parliamentary privilege, so Mr Wilkie has referred to the privilege committee for consideration.
- Author
Daniel Williams
