The white shoe brigade is kicking back. A private investigator from the Gold Coast is preparing a class action against consumer advocate Neil Jenman. Jenman, a former real estate agent disgusted at the seedier side of the market, has publicly named and shamed dozens of property investment scammers, get-rich-quick merchants and unethical estate agents. Is there a case against the real estate scam-buster, or are the spruikers merely exposing themselves to further public examination?

The following advertisement was placed by Phoenix Global on page 7 of the Australian Financial Review on Friday:

Phoenix, a Southport private investigation firm, according to the person answering the phone, is run by former Queensland cop Michael Featherstone.

Phoenix would not disclose who they were acting for, but sources suggest it is Gold Coast developer Dudley Quinlivan. Once described as “king con” on the floor of Queensland’s parliament, Quinlivan has reason to be aggrieved. Jenman has called him “the big daddy spruiker” on his website and has likened his business practices to “a giant greedy gorilla devouring a banana”.

But Jenman sees this as fairly flimsy grounds for a class action.

“Can you imagine someone going to court and saying, look, I sell overpriced properties to investors and Mr Jenman’s warning people so therefore they’re not buying the overpriced properties? What would the judge say?” says Jenman.

Jenman believes a successful class action is very unlikely.

“To take a class action against somebody you’ve got to show that they’ve poisoned the water or something. The only thing I can imagine I have done, which I’m quite proud to say that I’ve done, is that I’ve stopped these blokes from sucking in retirees and mum and dad investors.”

Fellow crusader against unethical practices in property and consumer finance, Denise Brailey, says she feels for Jenman’s predicament, but Phoenix’s advertisement “may just be a key indicator that Mr Jenman is on the right track.”

“I see him only as a person who wants to assist consumers,” Brailey says.

Jenman has some colourful enemies. The likes of Henry Kaye and Brad Cooper spring to mind, as do those behind collapsed empires Westpoint, Fincorp and Australian Capital Reserve. And while Phoenix’s website runs a series of articles damning the connection between financial planners and Westpoint — the property development scheme that Jenman exposed before it collapsed — colourful characters such as Westpoint founder Norm Carey may struggle to differentiate themselves from the people Phoenix’s director Featherstone associates with.

Beyond suing consumer advocates, Phoenix has a special line in helping people in getting refunds from predictive software scams: horse racing, betting and stockmarket programs. The last time this reporter met Featherstone however, he was acting as a consultant for a company that was involved in ‘virtual’ stockmarket games.

In 2003, Featherstone advised to another Gold Coast company called Ezyshoppe. The former organised crime unit detective was on hand to “bullet-proof” the online multi-level marketing scheme, which was also behind an outfit called Cyber Wall St — an online stockmarket game where members earned extra shares for signing up new members. Ezyshoppe was also behind an internet-based calling time reseller called Ezytalking, that was rebadged 1CellNet, sources say.

In November 2005 the Federal Court declared 1CellNet an illegal pyramid scheme, after the ACCC instituted proceedings against it the previous year. But just as it came from Ezytalking, 1CellNet then morphed into something called Cell Wireless Corporation. Featherstone himself became a director of Cell Wireless in November 2005, joining CEO John Bohringer, who is now a sales consultant at Ray White Broadbeach.

Cell Wireless is now defunct, but the scam, sources allege, continues. The same owners have been linked to a cornucopia of other tricks including LifeWealth8, the winner of ASIC’s 2004 ‘Pie in the Sky’ award. Like Cyber Wall St, LifeWealth8, which targeted consumers as far afield as Norway and Southeast Asia, offered online stockmarket games with opportunities for untold riches. The scheme has allegedly appeared under other names too, including World Games Inc, Virtual Games Global, Global Stock Game, 1GlobalVillage Club and Aspiritus. Some of these entities, most of which are incorporated in offshore jurisdictions, still operate and continue to lose money for the desperate and gullible.

A seemingly unrelated business operating at Phoenix Global’s address, Staunch Energy — apparently the official energy drink of Thai kickboxing champion Nathan “Carnage” Corbett — is similarly affiliated with another online stockmarket game called Profit Share Game, according to profitsharegame.com.

It is perhaps appropriate that Phoenix Global is named after the mythological firebird of rebirth.

“A sunny place for shady people,” Jenman says of the Gold Coast. “This just makes me more determined than ever.”

Michael Featherstone did not wish to comment for this story.