TERRY GOLDBERG, TURNER FREEMAN LAWYERS
Terry Goldberg –
A liar and a thief
This is a journalistic and factual account of deception and blatant criminality which saw Terry Goldberg, an equity partner of Turner Freeman Lawyers, act with stealth over a protracted period to strip a church and registered charity of its substantial assets, having employed fraudulent methods to do so, before placing those and other monies into a Trust of his and an associate’s creation.
Terry Goldberg’s acts of criminality are legend, and, indeed as are the cover ups as taking place within the Law Society of NSW and the Office of the Legal Services Commissioner. Terry Goldberg has been able to act with sheer abandon knowing of the protection on offer. Such is the evidence to hand that sites such as this can exist. As you will see, documentary evidence is available for all claims made.
See below to see how events unfold and how large amounts of money have seemingly vanished; all to the benefit of Mr Goldberg and his associates, business and otherwise.
The original fraud
So, where do we start? On 27 November 2009, Terence Goldberg of Turner Freeman Lawyers acted for all four plaintiffs in Supreme Court proceedings. There were six defendants; the first to fifth as represented by Pigott Stinson Lawyers. The sixth defendant, an incorporated association, was unrepresented.
Justice Patricia Bergin, then Chief Judge in Equity, made the Order that each party pay their own costs. The sixth defendant, being an unrepresented party, quite obviously had accrued no costs. (The Judgment showing Order and parties can be downloaded here.)
On 23 June 2010, Terry Goldberg filed with the Supreme Court of NSW an Application for Assessment of Solicitor/Client Costs, while claiming in such that there had been five plaintiffs and five defendants in the said proceedings, and that he had acted for the incorporated association in question. Terence Goldberg’s lie is obvious.
Certificate of determination
Having misled the court, and by now the costs assessor also, Terence Goldberg obtained a certificate of determination against the party for whom he did not act in the amount of $124,661.90. Terence Goldberg then filed this certificate of determination with the District Court, Sydney, and obtained a judgment debt against the sixth defendant, being the Enmore Spiritualist Church Incorporated, in that same amount (as here).
As a result of this fraudulently obtained judgment debt, the abovementioned sixth defendant was placed into administration by a liquidator well known to Terence Goldberg, and as appointed by Mr Goldberg himself. Another long-time acquaintance of Terence Goldberg, while claiming to be a creditor of the church in the amount of $85.00, then put forward the resolution to wind up the association in order to pay Turner Freeman’s claimed debt.
The certificate of determination can be downloaded here.
Sale of 2 London Street, Enmore
On 21 June 2011, 2 London Street, Enmore, the only asset as owned by the Enmore Spiritualist Church Incorporated (the sixth defendant), was sold for $965,000 to pay the church’s ‘debts’. In actual fact, the church, while having very little money, had no real debts to speak of.
On 20 December 2012, Turner Freeman Lawyers was paid the sum of $188,303.60 by the liquidator, and as can be seen, the amount as claimed to be owed to Turner Freeman Lawyers has swelled considerably from the original judgment debt of $124,661.90.
Sadly, this is where the criminal behaviour becomes more serious and escalates into conspiracy to commit further fraud before Terry Goldberg enters into a money laundering scheme with Michael Jones, the liquidator.
Creation of new entities
On 29 May 2014, and despite having been paid in full of his claimed debt some 17 months prior, Terence Goldberg attends a ‘meeting of creditors’ at the offices of Jones Partners, and discusses the creation of two new entities, being a new incorporated association and a charitable Trust, with both of such then being used to funnel the remaining monies as owned by the now defunct original association.
Terence Goldberg was the only ‘creditor’ to attend this meeting, which in actuality renders such meeting null and void. As well as creating new entities, Terence Goldberg, in this meeting, resolves to remunerate Michael Jones, the liquidator, for his efforts in liquidating the original entity.
The minutes of this supposed ‘meeting of creditors’ can be downloaded here.
The Trust
The two new entities as created by Terry Goldberg and Michael Jones of Jones Partners are given near identical names, ie The Congregation of the Enmore Spiritualist Church Incorporated, and The Congregation of the Enmore Spiritualist Church Foundation Trust.
The only object of the said Trust is to provide monies to the about to be formed incorporated association.
The new incorporated association came into being on 21 October 2015, and the The Trust on 16 December 2016.
At the time of inception, the newly formed incorporated association was based at the given home address of the same long-time acquaintance of Terry Goldberg who resolved to wind up the original entity in the first instance, a one bedroom studio flat in Darlinghurst.
The Trust Deed can be downloaded here. The Constitution of the new entity can be downloaded here.
Movement of monies into Trust
After holding on to the monies as owned by the original entity for five years, Michael Jones, the liquidator, placed a sum in the region of $985,447 into the Trust of his and Terence Goldberg’s making.
However, in his declaration to ASIC, Michael Jones states that the said Trust received the amount of $500,000 exactly. Michael Jones also in that same declaration states that he paid $242,179 to unsecured creditors, and some $81,826.35 in legal fees. It is presumed that these ‘legal fees’ were paid to Turner Freeman Lawyers. That declaration can be downloaded here.
The most interesting aspect, or indeed the most alarming, is that the Trust which received the above sum of $985,447 in the financial year of 2016/2017, then had unexplained expenses of $492,307, with that amount then leaving the Trust, and leaving behind an amount of $493,140. (As per the ACNC.) As reported on 31 January 2024, the Trust presently holds $561,798.00, and such can be viewed here.
FABRICATED CREDITORS & MEMBERS
As mentioned above, Michael Jones declares that he paid $242,179 to unsecured creditors, however, at the time of the winding up of the church, the church had one creditor only, being an invoice payable to CBC Partners in the amount of $3,514.50, who had carried out an audit into the church’s finances. The church had the full means to pay this invoice
In addition to non-existent creditors, the newly formed incorporated association has at the rear of its constitution the names of 19 financial members. On inspection of the electoral roll, only one of these names is in fact real, with the rest being a figment of someone’s lively imagination.
Some of the names do actually appear on the roll, however, with different addresses, and with most simply not existing at all.
LYING TO THE COURT
On 26 February 2016 in the Local Court, Sydney, Terence Goldberg repeated his lie and claimed on oath that he acted for the Enmore Spiritualist Church Incorporated in the aforementioned 2009 proceedings, and that his clients brought the 2009 proceedings on behalf of the church. Of course, those two statements are false.
In separate Supreme Court proceedings, and again on oath, as on 6 April 2018, Terence Goldberg claimed that $30,000 as belonging to his then ex-client was in his firm’s trust account. That money had already been removed from Turner Freeman’s trust account, and Terence Goldberg’s statement is a lie.
The Law Society of NSW and the Office of the Legal Services Commissioner dismissed all complaints regarding this and all the above. The protection on offer is rather obvious.
All annexures to the above sworn affidavit can be downloaded here. The affidavit itself can be downloaded in pdf format by clicking on any of the above graphics.
Documentation corroborating all the above can also be found at The Evidence page at https://www.fumbart.com. Such claims would not be made without evidence to hand.
This website came into being in May 2015. Terence Goldberg remains without sanction.