19 Jan 2011
RETRACTED: Natasha Lakaev's evidence 'deliberately untrue', says judge
RETRACTED
NOTE FROM PERRY BULWER: I have removed two news article from this archive. The following news article explains why, for the first time since I started this archive, I removed those two articles. The other retracted article was on this page:
http://religiouschildabuse.blogspot.ca/2011/01/survivor-reveals-extreme-abuse-in.html
UPDATE NOVEMBER 3, 2018: I removed the original articles by Michael Bachelard after I was informed about the defamation lawsuit. It was the only time I agreed to remove an article from this archive. Four years later I regretted doing so, after reading the 2014 article by Michael Bachelard, which I posted below. Now Natasha Lakaev is back in the news, and I've posted a new report in the comments below.
*******************
http://www.smh.com.au/national/natasha-lakaevs-evidence-deliberately-untrue-says-judge-20141013-1157wp.html
Natasha Lakaev's evidence 'deliberately untrue', says judge
by Michael Bachelard Sydney Morning Herald October 13, 2014
Four years ago I wrote a story in The Sunday Age about a brave young woman who had been trapped in a small, northern-NSW new-age cult for 12 years.
She'd lost that portion of her life, as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars, both buying useless courses and in direct payments to the cult leader, Natasha Lakaev.
She'd been hit, dominated, humiliated, worked without pay for up to 22 hours a day and, when I spoke to her, was still frightened that the end of the world was nigh. She'd had her tubes tied because she believed what Lakaev had told her: that she was a "human f--k up" who could not properly look after her three children. She grieved over the daughter she'd never have.
But, unlike most victims of cults, this young woman - I will not name her because she has been through enough already - was courageous enough to want to tell all this to the world. She wanted to warn others about Lakaev, and to say out loud that she was no longer afraid of her.
I had written already about the Exclusive Brethren so had some knowledge of the subject, and wanted to help her do this. I also wanted to use her case to explain to my readers how cults recruit the young, the clever, the searching, and then proceed to grind them down.
In the research for the story, I found out that Lakaev was working as a registered psychologist for a Queensland government health centre on the Gold Coast, looking after patients she herself had described as vulnerable. I wrote about that, too.
I also found out she was litigious and had sued former cult members for allegedly writing about her on internet forums after she had legally forced a website to reveal the identities of its users. She had also sued A Current Affair for an earlier story. The result was that many adverse stories about her were not available.
She sent a warning letter to Google trying to have adverse mentions of her removed. She was adept, in other words, at cleansing her online image.
You cannot read my stories online any more either. Fairfax Media has removed them as part of a legal settlement with Lakaev reached in the early hours of Wednesday morning that ends the four-year defamation case she launched against Fairfax as well as News Limited - which wrote wrote a follow-up story to mine - me personally and two of the people quoted in the stories.
After four years of dragging this case through the courts, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses, Lakaev had her day in court this week. It was to argue to the Queensland Supreme Court for yet another delay, after she had failed properly to prepare for a four-week jury trial. It turns out that she'd made little real effort to do anything at all to prepare.
Her tactics, perhaps, were simply to delay so long, piling the emotional pressure on people she had already systematically victimised once, to wring a financial settlement out of Fairfax and the other defendants.
It did not work. In court, applying for the adjournment. The judge said that: "The plaintiff prevaricated, talked in circumlocutions, and otherwise tried to avoid anything that might do otherwise than bolster a case."
And again: "I found her evidence deliberately prevaricating and at times demonstrably untrue during the course of this adjournment application."
The judge refused the adjournment application and told Lakaev to be ready to conduct the trial by herself, starting next week. Confronted with the reality of running the case, Lakaev began negotiating to settle.
Settlement was reached on the basis that nothing of what my stories said, nor what my brave subject was willing and able to prove in court, was retracted.
Fairfax agreed to take down our articles to get the settlement done, but nothing says we cannot write another account of events. No money changed hands.
Judgment was entered against Lakaev and for the defendants. According to the law, Fairfax, the brave young woman and her former husband, our other co-defendants and I, won the case.
What do we make of all this?
Defamation law, in the hands of a highly determined and litigious individual, is a powerful deterrent to public-interest journalism. Fairfax and News Limited stood ready to prove every one of the things we wrote about Lakaev, but it took four expensive years even to get to the door of the court. Then, but for the good sense of the judge it might have taken 18 months more. We will receive nothing back from the investment of hundreds of thousands of dollars spent preparing our case. It is unlikely Lakaev could have met our costs, she was hoping she was the one who'd get the payout. Lesser organisations or individuals, once their research revealed how litigious she is, may have pulled back from publishing a story that was clearly in the public interest.
When we talk about the demise of well-funded commercial media, this is one of the potential casualties.
And, finally, to the American ballet school that Lakaev is suing: hang tough. She spends a lot of time shaping up to people through the courts, but under cross-examination she's not much of a witness.
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New Zealand research provides valuable insights on the psychological impact on children growing up in cult communes
Cult survivor reveals deceptive recruiting tactics used by Scientology and similar cults
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How Cults Rewire The Brain [video]
The Cult With No Name
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This article relied entirely on the fabricated and misleading newspaper article from the Sunday Age please click into the following link to view the conclusive court results and retraction of allegations against Ms Lakaev:
ReplyDeletehttp://complete-retraction-and-apology-to-natasha-lakaev.com/
I removed the original article by Michael Bachelard (RETRACTED above) after I was informed about the defamation lawsuit. It was the only time I agreed to remove an article from this archive. Four years later I regretted doing so, after reading the 2014 article by Michael Bachelard, which I posted above. Now Natasha Lakaev is back in the news, and I've posted new reports in the comments below.
ReplyDeleteAutism psychologist once ran New Age cult
ReplyDeleteEXCLUSIVE
by RICK MORTON, SOCIAL AFFAIRS WRITER, THE AUSTRALIAN OCTOBER 26, 2018
A Queensland psychologist accused of once leading a New Age cult which promised paying clients the ability to “move between dimensions” has been working as an approved provider of a federal autism program since 2015.
Natasha Lakaev — who ran courses through a program called Universal Knowledge from a Northern NSW property known as Omaroo in the early 2000s — once claimed to be a “metaphysician” who could heal HIV and other diseases and later retrained as a psychologist.
Natasha Psychology, which Ms Lakaev runs on the Gold Coast, is listed as an approved provider for autism support under the federal Department of Social Services’ Helping Children with Autism package.
“DSS has established a panel of early intervention service providers to deliver evidence-based services to eligible children as part of the HCWA package,” the website says.
“This site provides a description of available interventions and fees associated with each therapy. The list is updated with new service providers as new applications to the panel are approved.”
Ms Lakaev told The Weekend Australian she never ran a cult. “It was a business with shareholders ... in today’s terminology it would be a coping skills workshop,” she said.
Asked whether she had said HIV could be cured with meditation, she said: “There is evidence for that now in the literature.”
Some functions of the HCWA program are slowly being absorbed into the $22 billion National Disability Insurance Scheme but providers are still listed under the program because the department continues to fund services for those who do not yet have access to the scheme.
Ms Lakaev said she had “provided services under the (HCWA) umbrella and, yes, I am registered as a clinical psychologist and I am working in that field successfully”.
The psychologist said she had not tried to recruit new clients for Universal Knowledge.
“People have asked me if I would ever go back to the original work we did,” she said.
She also said: “Other lifetimes, past lifetimes are sometimes things people experience in meditation and they explore those things for themselves.”
In a 2010 judgment in the Supreme Court of NSW, judge Elizabeth Fullerton said Ms Lakaev was “deliberately vague and evasive in her evidence in crucial respects and for those reasons not a witness upon whose evidence I am able to comfortably rely”.
Ms Lakaev, listed on the website of Monash University as completing a PhD on the topic of student stress, promised participants of “the next evolutionary step” that they would develop telepathy and “multidimensionality”.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Social Services said: “Psychologists are registered, accredited and regulated by the National Psychology Board of Australia, whose primary role is to protect the public.
“The PBA is supported by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency.
“AHPRA is the appropriate body where complaints or concerns should be raised in the first instance.”
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/health/autism-psychologist-once-ran-new-age-cult/news-story/87af18500178691c3fcc097e020a8648
Teacher in harmful cult gets NDIS funds
ReplyDeleteEXCLUSIVE
by RICK MORTON, SOCIAL AFFAIRS WRITER, The Australian OCTOBER 31, 2018
A “behaviour specialist” who teaches in a “socially harmful cult” runs a clinic that receives taxpayer money through a federal autism program and the $22 billion National Disability Insurance Scheme.
Just a day after Universal Medicine cult leader Serge Benhayon was found by the NSW Supreme Court to be the leader “of a group which to his knowledge makes false claims about healing that causes harm to others”, an instructor called Tanya Curtis appeared in a video defending his teachings.
Mr Benhayon was also found by the jury to have an “indecent interest in young girls as young as 10 whom he causes to stay at his house unaccompanied”. During a defamation case against a former client, which he lost, the former bankrupt and one-time tennis coach told the jury he was the reincarnation of Leonardo da Vinci.
Ms Curtis — a member of the Universal Medicine clinic in Brisbane — is the founder and sole director of Fabic Pty Ltd, which deals predominantly with children who have autism, ADHD and anxiety or depression.
Fabic is an approved provider under the federal government’s Helping Children with Autism program, which subsidises early-intervention services. Fabic employs a speech pathologist, occupational therapist and psychologist.
Fabic, based on the Gold Coast, is also a registered provider with the NDIS offering accommodation, employment, transport and household services.
Almost anyone can register for the NDIS to provide household tasks without needing extensive checks or vetting.
The Weekend Australian revealed another Gold Coast clinician, psychologist Natasha Lakaev, was the founder and instructor of the unrelated Universal Knowledge program and is also listed as an approved provider of services by the federal government.
In the video posted on the Facebook page of Universal Medicine’s Brisbane branch, Unimed Brisbane, Ms Curtis defends the teaching of “ageless wisdom” by Mr Benhayon. She explains “the ancient lineage of philosophical teachings from greats such as Imhotep, Buddha, Plato and now Serge Benhayon”. “After I had my first healing session I went and attended a course that was presented by Serge Benhayon on the ageless wisdom teachings, and the best way I could describe it was it felt like home,” she says in the video.
Ms Curtis’s Fabic organisation sells a range of audio recordings, presentations and even children’s books. One item, a book of tips for parents with behaviourally challenged children, includes a quote by Mr Benhayon on the cover.
She did not respond to questions about whether she used Universal Medicine theories or techniques in her taxpayer-funded work but Ms Curtis told The Australian she achieved results.
“I am highly experienced and qualified in the area of working with any person, groups and organisations who are supporting behaviour change in one person and/or a group of people,” she said. “Our philosophy is based on seeing the strengths in every person and thus no person and/or their behaviours will ever be judged. Due to the quality and principles of the work that I offer at Fabic, I am often known as the ‘last resort person’, obtaining results with behaviour change in cases where other attempts have failed.”
The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission is assuming responsibility for registration of service providers under the scheme. “(The commission) has a range of actions it can take if it discovers that some … organisations or their key personnel are not suitable to be involved in the provision of supports or services to NDIS participants,” a spokeswoman said.
https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/health/teacher-in-harmful-cult-gets-ndis-funds/news-story/2cd6b94b90a080482cddf37db62945ea
‘Given to grandiosity’: Judge slams former ‘cult’ leader Natasha Lakaev as she loses Tas defamation trial
ReplyDeleteA former “cult leader” now living in the Huon Valley has failed in her latest defamation battle, with a Hobart judge slamming her as an “arrant liar” and finding all claims made about her were true.
by Amber Wilson The Mercury March 4, 2024
A former “cult leader” now living in Tasmania has failed in her latest defamation legal battle, with a Hobart judge slamming her as an “arrant liar” who “wrongfully indoctrinated people into her bizarre belief system”.
Natasha Lakaev, the former leader of NSW organisation Universal Knowledge, moved to Geeveston some years ago and is now the proprietor of bed and breakfast, The Bears Went Over The Mountain.
Her unsuccessful defamation claim against former acolyte Carli McConkey comes after a lengthy 34-day trial in the Supreme Court of Tasmania, which aired dozens of bizarre claims – including that Lakaev claimed to be a reincarnation of Jesus Christ, “one of 12 on the “Intergalactic Council of the Universe”, and that she’d been “a lady in waiting in Atlantis”.
It was also alleged Dr Lakaev claimed she came from the “bird tribes” from a different dimension and remembered all of her past lives.
During the trial, Dr Lakaev admitted that her personal improvement courses had included “genital rubbing” and the watching of porn, and told the court she had saved the life of her terminally-ill baby son by giving him herbal remedies.
Dr Lakaev denied during the trial that one of her sub-companies, Lightspeed, had been a “psychic horse-betting scheme”, but claimed instead it was a gambling system based on a “very clever mathematical system” by a “very intelligent” man, who had since died.
In his newly-published judgment, Justice Stephen Estcourt has ruled in favour of Ms McConkey, finding all claims she made about Dr Lakaev in her self-published book The Cult Effect, in newspaper articles reproduced within the book, and via social media posts, were either absolutely or substantially true.
continued below
Agreeing with Ms McConkey’s claims and finding her to be a truthful and reliable witness, he found it absolutely true that Dr Lakaev was indeed “a cult leader” who “wrongfully indoctrinated people into her bizarre belief system” and who physically assaulted her followers.
ReplyDeleteHe also found it true that Dr Lakaev was a criminal, that she used and encouraged others in her cult to use illicit drugs, that she was a bully, and unlawfully obtained financial advantages from her cult members.
Justice Estcourt found it was substantially true that Dr Lakaev was a “violent extremist” and that she was not a fit and proper person to practise as a psychologist.
He praised Ms McConkey – who represented herself during the trial – for her honesty, for her keeping of extensive documentation, and her ability to remain unshaken during cross-examination.
“I could not have been more impressed with the defendant’s evidence,” Justice Estcourt said.
In contrast, he described Lakaev as having given “frequent garrulous and seemingly interminable and convoluted answers to questions asked of her” in court and at times spoke in a “rambling, self-aggrandising” manner.
Justice Estcourt said Lakaev “was given to grandiosity” and “untruthful exaggeration” when it came to discussing her “powers as a healer and self-healer” – and said he was unconvinced by her denials that she’d ever claimed to be a reincarnation of Jesus.
He said her evidence, given over 17 days of cross-examination, showed a lack of candour and persuaded him, “to a very high level of satisfaction” that Lakaev was an “arrant liar”.
Justice Estcourt also ruled that Lakaev pay Ms McConkey’s costs in fighting the defamation case.
The current case was the latest in a string of defamation battles waged by Dr Lakaev, including proceedings against A Current Affair, Bond University, other former followers, Fairfax Media, News Corp, and a United States dance school.
https://www.themercury.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/police-courts-tasmania/given-to-grandiosity-judge-slams-former-cult-leader-natasha-lakaev-as-she-loses-tas-defamation-trial/news-story/70c64ff2298ce113a76f2a039c8fa6c5
Former cult leader Natasha Lakaev loses libel case appeal
ReplyDeleteby Benjamin Seeder, The Examiner July 12, 2024
Accused former cult leader Natasha Lakaev has failed in her bid to overturn the findings of her marathon libel trial against one of her former members, Carli McConkey.
Ms Lakaev, who headed the Universal Knowledge organisation throughout the 2000s, launched libel proceedings against Ms McConkey following the publication of her book, 'The Cult Effect', in 2017.
In it, Ms McConkey detailed her experience of living as a Universal Knowledge member over a [13]-year period, and described the organisation as a "doomsday cult" that abused its members and prophesied the end of the world in 2011 or 2012.
During the trial, Ms Lakaev's lawyer Daniel Zeeman claimed that the book and other articles Ms McConkey published online improperly impugned her as a criminal, a bully, a fraudster and as someone that indoctrinated people into a cult.
Ms Lakaev denied the allegations in the book and articles, but in March this year, Justice Stephen Estcourt found that all 16 of Ms McConkey's imputations were either true or substantially true.
Ms Lakaev later appealed the decision, claiming that Justice Estcourt erred in his decision by finding that four of the imputations in Ms McConkey's book were truthful.
Former Universal Knowledge member Carli McConkey defended herself during the libel trial.
In his reasons for decision released on Friday, July 12, Supreme Court Chief Justice Alan Blow ruled there was little chance of Ms Lakaev's appeal grounds succeeding.
"Nothing in the appellant's written or oral submissions suggests to me that a challenge to any particular one of the 16 findings would have any obvious merit," Justice Blow wrote.
He dismissed the appeal due to lack of prosecution - meaning that Ms Lakaev had not properly filed her appeal documentation and had failed to move her appeal application forward.
Ms Lakaev, for the most part, represented herself during the appeal.
During the case, it emerged that she owed her former lawyer, Mr Zeeman, over $100,000 in connection to her marathon libel trial.
The appeal court heard that her new lawyer had been unable to obtain court documents from Mr Zeeman, who was holding them as a solicitor's lien until the fees owed were paid.
Ms Lakaev later told the court that she would represent herself during the appeal after learning that the case would cost $500,000.
In the appeal hearing in May, Ms Lakaev sought a delay in proceedings for six months and also claimed that her trial had been bungled by Mr Zeeman.
She alleged he failed to call a key witness that might have changed the outcome of the case.
During the libel trial, which stretched over months in 2023 and early 2024, the court heard testimony that Ms Lakaev claimed to be a reincarnation of Jesus Christ as well as one of 12 members of the 'Intergalactic Council of the Universe'.
The court also heard testimony that Ms Lakaev's organisation had prophesied the end of the world in 2011 or 2012 and had offered courses to followers that taught them how to survive the end of times by switching dimensions.
Followers paid tens of thousands of dollars to access various courses, were subject to abuse and were exposed to gay pornography, the trial heard.
https://www.examiner.com.au/story/8693602/accused-cult-leader-natasha-lakaev-loses-defamation-appeal/
No ‘significant prospects of success’: Former ‘cult’ leader appeal hopes dashed
ReplyDeleteby Genevieve Holding, The Mercury July 13, 2024
A former ‘cult’ leader, now living in the Huon Valley, has lost her bid to appeal against a defamation finding on Friday, with a Hobart judge saying her case had no “significant prospects of success”.
Dr Natasha Lakaev is the former leader of NSW organisation Universal Knowledge and is now the proprietor of bed and breakfast, The Bears Went Over The Mountain in Geeveston.
Dr Lakaev previously launched a defamation battle against former follower Carli McConkey over claims she made about Dr Lakaev in her self-published book, The Cult Effect.
The claims include that Lakaev labelled herself a reincarnation of Jesus Christ and Ms McConkey was forced to parade naked in front of Lakaev.
Dr Lakaev wished to challenge all sixteen findings found in the dismissal of her defamation claim.
She alleged the presiding judge made findings based “solely on character” and “improper handling” of Ms McConkey’s expert witness and that her former legal counsel represented her “so badly” an appeal should be allowed.
Lakaev ran into issues when filing her appeal to the Supreme Court however, with a change of legal representation three times before finally representing herself, a process which took two months.
Court documents revealed that Lakaev’s original legal representation Hobart firm Butler McIntyre & Butler was unwilling to act for her in the appeal due to an outstanding trial bill over $100,000.
In handing down his decision, Chief Justice Alan Blow said Dr Lakaev was “unlikely to succeed” in an appeal to the Full Court – a court consisting of three or more Supreme Court Judges.
“If the appeal is not dismissed, the respondent will suffer significant prejudice in bearing the burden of defending the proceedings,” Chief Justice Blow said.
“There is absolutely no indication that any of the appellant’s original or foreshadowed grounds of appeal have any significant prospects of success.”
Chief Justice Blow also ruled that Lakaev pay Ms McConkey’s costs in addressing the appeal.
https://www.themercury.com.au/subscribe/news/1/