APRA (the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority) seems to have got a little bit upset about this.

See if you can guess why.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has succeeded in obtaining court orders preventing an unauthorised financial business, the ‘Federal State Bank of Australia’, from calling itself and acting like a ‘bank’.

Justice Susan Keifel in the Federal Court in Brisbane ordered that Donald Cameron and Darryl John Wheeley be restrained from using the word ‘bank’ after evidence was put to the court that hundreds of thousands of dollars in fake currency and cheques were being passed off as legitimate and that the word ‘bank’ had been used illegally.

The phoney ‘bank’ was supposedly an institution of the so-called ‘Independent Sovereign State of Australia’. Donald Cameron is the self-styled Attorney-General and Chief Justice of that supposed country, as well as being the Archbishop of the ‘Church of Love and Peace’. Evidence presented by APRA to the court showed that:

  1. a total of 12 transactions have been identified where fake currency and cheques purporting to be valued at over $500,000 were attempted to be used as legitimate payment for various transactions including payment of rent, printing, telephones, the discharging of mortgages and legal fees;
  2. the ‘cheques’ were presented by unsuspecting recipients to various bank branches in Queensland, Sydney and Perth, none of which was honoured;
  3. the unauthorised bank and affiliated institutions operate out of a home in suburban Moorooka in Brisbane, which is the subject of a mortgage foreclosure;
  4. Cameron was declared a vexatious litigant by the Supreme Court of Queensland in March 1996; and
  5. Cameron had previously failed to address an APRA demand that he stop using the words ‘bank’, ‘banker’, ‘banking’ or any similar words or phrases in relation to the business in contravention of section 66 of the Banking Act 1959 (Banking Act).

Just a quick reminder, guys – to use the words “bank”, “banking”, “building society”, “credit union” or any like terms you need to be licensed by APRA under the Banking Act 1959.
Passing dud cheques, fake currency and the like is also likely to get the authorities a little bit upset. I will be fascinated to see the results of any resulting trial. I think they may have broken s

everal laws.