We believe that, with the aid of a former churchgoer, attacks were orchestrated by certain State and Australian government officials. It is suspected that this churchgoer, Mr Martin Penney, [allegedly secretly paid off by SAPOL (SA Police) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP)] fabricated lies and planted large amounts of ammunition in the Charity’s containers (ready to be shipped to Vanuatu for impending National Development Projects).

A fear and alarm campaign was unleashed targeting this Christian charity. It is believed to have been orchestrated by Martin Penney and his associates, using TV, Newspaper (Rupert Murdoch’s Advertiser newspaper in SA), Police, SA Government authorities, ATO and AFP based on GREED, jealousy and lies.

It continues to this day – three years later…unbelievable?

Yes, if you saw the movie you’d think ‘this can’t be true!’ But it is – click here to see the overview of who’s involved…  Attacks-Overview

Attacks such as this don’t just happen. To be effective they must be well planned many months in advance. As you will see these strikes were orchestrated to cause as much damage as possible – regardless of harm done to innocent people, including young children.

These destructive strikes began with a massive media campaign, designed to stir up fear and loathing through misinformation and hysterical association with unrelated events in other parts of the world. It was followed by secretive civil court freeze orders and police raids based on flawed information and just a few days later, an assault by the taxation office. These events are summarised as follows:

April 2010 onwards: Television Channel 7 Adelaide, Today Tonight current affairs program launches a series of reports on AMI and tries to label it as a Doomsday Cult – all orchestrated and fed by Martin Penney, using former churchgoers who had been expelled from AMI by Ps Leo for their deceptions.

Outcome: AMI supporters are hounded by media & some lose their jobs. AMI’s standing in the Australian community is under direct attack.

17^th May 2010 : Ps Leo, Joseph and Mari Veneziano arrive in Suva, Fiji for scheduled Presidential talks with Mr Joeli Rokovada (assistant to Fiji’s President) and government ministers on National Development Projects and aid to be extended to the Fiji government by AMI.

Note: The media falsely reported Ps Leo and his colleagues had fled from Australia, contrary to available evidence of scheduled meetings with government officials in South Pacific countries.

19^th May 2010: SA Police Officers (SAPOL) use massive resources to raid AMI’s Oakden & Kuitpo properties, Ps Leo’s home & AMI supporters’ properties (two days after the scheduled talks in Fiji began). 90+ police officers take part in raids, which are extensively covered, nationally and internationally, by the media in a major ‘beat-up’ designed to whip up fear and hysteria while improving their own ratings. Innocent parishioners have their rights violated as they’re charged with trumped up offences to justify this flurry of ransacking and invasions.

Outcome: AMI and its supporters are erroneously branded a cult and much Rupert Murdoch owned (eg Adelaide Advertiser & most Australian media outlets) frenzied media reporting of many untruths are portrayed as facts, without any attempt to substantiate them. As a result of these raids, no charges were laid against Ps Leo.

 28^th May 2010: Just 9 days after the first SAPOL raid, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) rescinds AMI’s tax exemption status as charity and back-dates this for 10 years. It’s decision is based on media reports & inaccurate SAPOL information, (without any attempt to confirm / substantiate this information).

The ATO:

• Advises that income tax returns are due almost immediately for the past 10 years!
• 9^th July 2010 – writes to AMI to advise an audit will be done for 2000 – 2010.
• 4^th August 2010 issues ‘ambit claim’ income tax assessment notices for AMI, Ps Leo & others
• 4^th August 2010 above mentioned assessments due and payable (same date as issued, before taxpayers even received the notices)
• 4^th August 2010 garnishee notices issued to banks for payment of assessments
• November 2010 issues garnishee orders for all assets already frozen by excessive order issued by civil court
• December 2010 applies to courts for freeze orders over assets already frozen by excessive order issued by civil court and presents inaccurate evidence to support this application. Application is successful.
• December 2010  applies to courts for recovery of debts (2010 assessments)
• June 2011 issues position papers for AMI audit + audits done on individuals without any notification of any persons, or consultation with any of the taxpayers affected. Demand unreasonably quick response (within 30 days)

Note: At no time was any effort made by the ATO to contact any of these taxpayers or their registered tax agents. Australia has very few lawyers specialising in this area (tax). They meet to discuss their cases and having been provided with the facts about this one have agreed they have never seen anything like it before! 

August 2011 aggressively pursues debt recovery through courts before audits completed

Note: At no time has the ATO claimed AMI is NOT a religious institution. The income tax exemption granted to a religious institution has not been rescinded. Income tax assessments have been issued to AMI, Ps Leo and Assistant Ps Joseph Veneziano regardless of these facts.

 May 2011: 126 charges of fraud were laid against Ps Leo, before SAPOL received advice from the government’s own Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

Outcome: In July 2011 the DPP issued two media releases and held a media conference to advise that there was no reliable evidence to support these charges and the witnesses were unreliable. Here’s the releases and a transcript of his media conference. This flurry of media attention cause SAPOL to post the following to their latest news website: MediaConference-DPP-27072011  SAPOLWebsite-Facts

Note: Since AMI’s income tax exemption was rescinded a flurry of notices from other government departments and local governments has followed. Each demands moneys, most often for rates and taxes not paid by organisations with status as a religious and/or charitable institution.