The ABC can reveal several NDIS participants are facing homelessness because they trusted companies linked to a suspected fraudster. Companies linked to Khawaja Moeen Haroon were allowed to keep signing up NDIS particpants - despite the operator being under investigation.
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00:00Yesterday, we revealed that Khawaja Haroon is under NDIS federal investigation. Investigators
00:10are tracing the movement of more than $10 million from the NDIS to companies linked
00:15to Haroon. Now, what Haroon and his companies are alleged to have done is rented a number
00:19of homes, often these homes are in Melbourne's west, and lured NDIS participants to live
00:25in these homes, where it's alleged the companies would then drain the participants' NDIS funding,
00:30and that's despite providing few services in exchange, and often these people would
00:35be living in squalor. What we can now reveal is that this group of companies has stopped
00:39paying the rent on many of these homes, so vulnerable NDIS participants have been evicted
00:44or are facing eviction, and one of them is Jim. Jim is 59 years old, he was living in
00:49stable public housing for 25 years, up until the end of 2023 when he met a representative
00:56from one of Haroon's companies. Now, this representative convinced Jim to move to a
01:00new apartment and to sign up with the companies for his NDIS services. But halfway through
01:05last year, the Haroon companies stopped paying the rent on Jim's apartment. This is even
01:10though Jim kept paying the rent to them. And now Jim will have nowhere to go.
01:16Technically, I'm evicted. I have to find somewhere else to go. I have nowhere to go at the moment.
01:21I don't know. I don't know what I'm going to do. They've got to keep an eye on these people.
01:24It's too easy to start a company. They have to follow through all the time. A lot of people
01:29get done over. Now, Jim only signed up with the Haroon group
01:33of companies at the end of 2023, but we've discovered that this federal investigation
01:39into this group of companies started in mid-2023. So disability advocates and lawyers are saying,
01:46how can this be? How can the NDIA be part of this huge investigation and have concerns
01:51about this group of companies? But on the other hand, still let a participant, a participant,
01:56sign up with these companies after that fact. Here's Jim's lawyer, Naomi Anderson.
02:02To make a complaint and realise that this has been going on for years and there have
02:06been multiple complaints made, it's outrageous. How is this still allowed to happen? How is
02:13our client able to sign up with providers when there are such serious questions over their conduct?
02:19And Jess, Khawaja Moeen Haroon denies any wrongdoing and is committed to cooperating
02:24fully with any official inquiries. What's the response been from the NDIS Commission
02:30and the NDIA about this? Look, both those agencies say they're unable
02:36to comment on this investigation specifically because it is ongoing, but they have said
02:41that they have zero tolerance for anyone seeking to exploit the NDIS or Australians with a disability.