Mandy Kang, a teacher at Unique International College in Sydney withdrew $1.9 million in cash from an ATM and received $20 million in payments from the college in period of less than six months, the Federal Court has heard.
Unique International College is being pursued by Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for $57 million in federal funding. The ACCC has alleged that the college was engaged in “unconscionable conduct” in recruiting disabled and illiterate students from Aboriginal missions who had no chances of completing the courses they were being signed up for.
According to the ACCC, of the 1534 students who commenced Unique courses from July 2014, 15 students have formally completed their diplomas
Unique and its owner Amarjit Singh deny any wrongdoing and claim they were operating a legitimate business.
According to ACCC, Mandy Kang, a relative of Amarjit Singh, withdrew a total of $1.9 million from Unique’s account from a Granville ATM. One of transactions totalled more than $60,000.
She bought a $5.7 million property of Unique in 2015, the court heard.
Acting for the ACCC, Norman O'Bryan, SC, questioned the source of the money that Ms. Kang’s family had been beneficiary of through her mother-in-law.
"It's my mother-in-law's, she can do what she wants. I didn't care, she gave me the money and I took it," she responded.
The court was told that large withdrawals of money were for purchasing laptops.
The ACCC alleges that "free" laptops were used as incentives to sign up students to the courses, which cost more than $20,000.
Mrs Kang said she did not withdraw any money for herself, but was acting under the instructions of Mr Singh.
Mr O'Bryan said that the withdrawals were part of a "familiar pattern". He said millions of dollars in Commonwealth funding for students would come into the account and was withdrawn within days into a separate online savings account.
"The Commonwealth paid $2.75 million in VET FEE-HELP on July 16 and a day later $2.4 million was withdrawn," said Mr O'Bryan.
Mandy Kang’s prodigious educational qualifications
The court heard that while Mrs Kang taught up to 60 students full time, she was simultaneously completing two six-month diplomas at other colleges in three months, caring for her two children and deferring a double degree in commerce and law at Western Sydney University.
The list of her qualifications included three diplomas in marketing, another in salon and management and a further two in business.
One of the business qualifications was an 18-month course which she completed in two months but failed to recall the name of a single unit of study.
"I had to have a direct qualification in order to teach the qualification," said Mrs Kang.
The ACCC alleged that Mrs Kang was accruing course materials in order for Unique to use them for their students. Mrs Kang denied the allegations.
