Roxy Jacenko’s Business Update: Loss of Control in $10 Million Mansion Giveaway

Roxy Jacenko has given her 268,000 Instagram followers an update following her botched house giveaway competition.

The Singapore-based Australian publicist, 44, made headlines last month when she promised to personally refund all 7,000 people who had signed up to her online business course Roxy’s Brand Bootcamp.

The promotion, which Jacenko had launched with business partners Youssef Tleis and Kassim Alaouie, included a number of prizes, including a luxury home.

In a lengthy statement shared to her social media account on Thursday, Jacenko addressed followers as the matter plays out in court.

‘I recently [became] aware of certain media articles regarding my application to the Supreme Court of New South Wales for the appointment of provisional liquidators to Roxy’s Bootcamp Pty Limited,’ she began.

‘In May 2024, as a shareholder of Roxy’s Bootcamp, I applied to the Supreme Court for the appointment of provisional liquidators to Roxy’s Bootcamp. At the time Mr Tleis controlled Roxy’s Bootcamp and my application to the court was opposed on the basis that Mr Tleis and Mr Alaouie wanted to continue to carry out the Roxy’s Bootcamp Trade Promotion.

‘I applied for the appointment of provisional liquidators because I considered that certain representations made to the public with the knowledge and approval of Mr Tleis regarding the promotion may be considered misleading.

‘I also applied for the  appointment of provisional liquidators because Mr Tleis and Mr Alaouie had refused my requests to bring the promotion to an end and the Company was not in a position to ensure that the house at Cronulla, if won, would be available as a prize.’

Jacenko continued: ‘After substantial attempts by me from mid-March to reach a resolution with Mr Tleis and Mr Alaouie, I was left with no alternative but to seek the court to make orders which I consider were necessary to protect the public.

‘Specifically, the appointment of professional third-party external administrator to determine the best course of action when the relationship between shareholders was at a stalemate.

Jacenko added that the court made orders in accordance with her application on June 5.

‘I have done everything I can to address the issues which I consider existed in relation to the promotion, including by incurring substantial legal costs in seeking the intervention of the court.

‘I am cooperating with the provisional liquidators as they request information and decide whether to conduct the promotion or determine some other outcome in respect of the promotion.’

It comes as fresh details emerged in court that the competition may have been ‘deceptive and misleading’ after its contract failed to disclose a major contract stipulation.

According to the Daily Telegraph, the court heard the agreement stipulated that the Cronulla house ‘would only be put forward as a prize if the competition generated at least $11.5million in total revenue’.

That condition was never made public by Jacenko during her publicity tour back in March, where she was interviewed by a number of major Australian media and broadcasting outlets.

The clause was also missing from the competition’s formal terms and conditions on the Roxy’s Bootcamp website.

Last month, Jacenko shared two videos posted to Instagram explaining she was stepping down as a director of the Bootcamp business, after the relationship with her business partners had fallen apart. 

Jacenko claimed she had felt ‘uncomfortable’ with the giveaway early on, and now felt ‘bullied’ by her former co-directors.

Tleis and Alaouie, who own half a stake in Roxy’s Bootcamp company alongside Jacenko, have since hit back at her claims. 

In an email sent to Roxy’s Bootcamp subscribers, the pair slammed Jacenko’s account, writing: ‘These videos are misleading and paint a completely inaccurate picture of our intentions and actions with regards to Roxy’s Bootcamp.’

The duo said they started the Bootcamp business with Jacenko ‘in good faith’ before their relationship ‘deteriorated based mainly on a difference of opinions about how to market the promotion’. 

‘This led Roxy, who I trusted as a business partner, to last month lock me out of the company’s [social media and shopping] accounts,’ they alleged. 

Tleis and Alaouie said they negotiated with Jacenko for ‘hours’ and ‘nearly went to court’, before finally agreeing to continue running the business together until the end of the promotion.

However, the relationship soon broke down again, they claimed. 

‘Her accusations that we do not intend to give away the prizes or pay the guaranteed $250,000 prize are simply wrong and defamatory, and are extremely concerning to us.

‘Just because she wants “out” of this business does not mean that the public should not get the benefit of a prize draw they signed up for,’ they wrote. 

The pair claimed they had asked Jacenko to hand over access to online accounts associated with the Bootcamp brand, saying they hope they do ‘not need to again seek legal recourse’.

Jacenko’s Brand Bootcamp made headlines thanks to its luxury line-up of prizes that were offered for people who signed up to the online program.

Punters who paid for the course, which started at $29, were to be entered in a giveaway to win a $10 million waterfront mansion in Sydney‘s Cronulla, as well other prizes including $250,000 cash, a Birkin handbag and a Rolex watch.

However, Jacenko informed her online followers she was refunding the fee for anyone who entered, and would be paying the reimbursements from her own bank account. 

‘As many of you would know, I launched a promotion on March 8 of this year. That promotion, Roxy’s Bootcamp, came about when I was direct-messaged on Instagram by someone who I don’t know, who had a great idea,’ she began. 

‘And that idea was for me to run my courses and associate a trade promotion with those courses… Basically, we formed a partnership with myself and two people that I don’t know. I spruiked it.’ 

Jacenko went on to describe the vast media campaign she engaged in to promote the venture, before becoming ‘uncomfortable’ three days into the process and suggesting at that stage that refunds should be issued.

The PR queen said she was willing to cough up $150,000 of her own money to make those refunds to customers, but the suggestion was ‘rejected’ by her business partners.

‘So the promotion carried on going and I carried on with my mindset of, “We’re going to get this done. We’re gonna make three people’s lives different by winning three fantastic prizes throughout the course of the last two months,”‘ she continued. 

Jacenko said she was left so ‘stressed and distressed’ by the process that her weight had dropped to 49 kilos and she had ‘fainted twice’. 

After what she calls ‘repeated negotiations’ with her business partners, Jacenko said she ‘cannot protect the $250,000’ offered for ‘the first prize’ and had been ‘holding hostage’ a Rolex and Birkin that were also part of the prize pool, as she did not ‘have access to the company bank account.’

She went on: ‘I have stepped down as a director. I am now only a shareholder. My hands are tied. I am exhausted. I feel bullied. I feel distressed and I’m embarrassed.

‘Now, I can’t do any more… Sadly, my name is all over this, but what I want you to know is I did my absolute best.

‘I can’t be in a position where I’m 49 kilos and I certainly cannot be in a position where walking to the door to answer the intercom, I faint.’

She concluded: ‘I value each and every one of you… And I want you to know that I did everything humanly possible to ensure that those three prizes were there and available to be given away to each of you.’

She returned to Instagram for a second video on Saturday in which the businesswoman offered to refund everyone who had purchased the course. 

‘I wanted to do an update for each and every one of you who has purchased a package since the launch of the Roxy’s Bootcamp promotion on March 8, 2024, through to today, May 11, 2024,’ she said. 

‘After much thought, I’ve made a decision and that decision is that I will personally refund each and every one of the 7,000-plus customers who have purchased a package in Roxy’s Bootcamp.

‘I’m holding my head high, standing my ground and making sure that each and every one of you who have purchased a package are refunded is really important.

‘I want to sleep at night and I want to know that I did what was right, no matter what dispute within a business is going on. The general public should not be a victim of that. Full refunds from me personally will commence occurring from Monday.

‘Bear with me, it will take some time as myself and the team in my office will need to collate each and every one of your data.

‘There are 7,000-plus of you, and the refunds will come from me, Roxy, personally because the bank account of Roxy’s Bootcamp, to which I am not a director of, is not accessible to me’. 

Jacenko went on: ‘I feel relieved. I feel it’s honourable and I feel that ethically it’s what needs to be done. I was backed into a corner. My name is all over this. This money can be made again by me. I’m an entrepreneur. It’s in my blood.

‘So each and every one of you who’s purchased from March 8 when this launched to today will receive a full refund and that will come from my bank account because you know what, you guys have supported me since day one, you’ve backed me. Money can be made again, but you deserve to get back what you deserve.’

The PR professional has faced scrutiny over the competition from the start, after Crikey claimed the chances of winning the home were ‘minuscule’.

The publication reported that according to the terms and conditions, the winner would have to ‘select both of the two winning envelopes out of 250 available options in order to win the house’.

Jacenko told Daily Mail Australia in a statement that she felt the competition presented a good offer to entrants.  

‘How often can you pay $29, get an online course valued at $299 and go in to play for a chance to win a $10million property, and if you don’t win, you can walk away with $250,000 cash – no questions asked?’ she said.

‘Two hundred and fifty thousand dollars is a 20 per cent down payment to invest in a property, should you so wish. I ordered a salad with chicken the other day when in Sydney, it was $32 and it gave me indigestion and not much else,’ she continued. 

‘Twenty-nine dollars to get access to an online course, a home or $250,000 cash, a Rolex watch or a Hermès handbag looks far more appetising.’

As for the chances of winning, Jacenko explained, ‘Odds of winning the prize game is 1 in 31,125. If we look at odds of winning Powerball in Australia: 1 in 134,490,400.’

The competition’s first prize was a three-storey, four-bedroom, five-bathroom Mediterranean-style mansion reportedly valued at $10 million. 

‘Australia has never seen a giveaway of this magnitude,’ Jacenko earlier said.  

‘It’s my turn to change one lucky Australian’s life and turn them into multimillionaires, basically overnight.’

Some confusion has additionally arisen over who owns the home, with earlier reports claiming Jacenko purchased it in 2020 for $3.36 million. 

However, the Daily Telegraph reported the property is in fact owned by two Bankstown-based businessmen. 

‘The property is owned by my business partners of Roxy’s Brand Bootcamp. A title search will show that,’ Jacenko previously told Daily Mail Australia. 

Named Zephyr, the home was up for auction in December last year with hopes of earning $10million. 

The property, which appeared on the TV series Australia’s Best House, reportedly failed to sell and was taken off the market, before it popped up in Jacenko’s giveaway.