ABC News (AU)
· collected 2026-10-05 · by Amy Donaldson, Elise Worthington, and Maddy King
From the outside the only clues something was up in the industrial estate office building in Brisbane's south, were the expensive cars with personalised plates clogging the driveway.
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something → clog → driveway
Inside, the lavishly decorated office had gold accents in the bathroom and chandeliers in the kitchen where staff had Monday lunches.
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staff → decorate → lunches
The organisation appeared to simply connect veterans to the taxpayer-funded care they needed.
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they → appear → care
But a Four Corners investigation has found that behind the scenes, the companies in the VBA network have made millions by turning veterans into valuable sales leads on an industrial scale.
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companies → find → scale
Veterans lured in by freebies and competitions on social media, would end up on VBA's books, passed from one entity to another, each billing the Department of Veterans' Affairs for their services.
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each → lure → services
An internal email shows staff were told veterans should be told to sign over their DVA funded GP care plans, worth thousands of dollars to VBA, in order to access other forms of care like medicinal cannabis or "free" medication packs.
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veterans → show → cannabis
In other cases veterans' DVA details were used for billing by multiple allied health practitioners they had never even spoken to.
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they → use → practitioners
Four Corners spoke to more than 50 current and former staff and clients and reviewed hundreds of pages of internal emails, company documents and corporate filings to piece together a system that enriched those at the top.
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that → speak → top
While dozens of individual practitioners working for companies in the ecosystem have been accused by DVA of overservicing and incorrect billing by DVA, the companies, and the individuals running them, have escaped scrutiny.
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companies → work → scrutiny
Free headphones, win a holiday
After the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide found veterans were struggling to get the compensation and care they needed, the government responded by pumping more than half a billion dollars into the complex system to clear a backlog of claims and improve services.
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government → win → services
The influx of money created an opportunity for a range of for-profit companies to cash in on connecting veterans to the care they needed.
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they → create → care
Veteran Benefits Australia started as a "blog" which says it connects veterans to "independent" services.
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it → start → services
But VBA itself is really a marketing funnel that feeds into what they referred to internally as "the Veteran Benefits Australia Ecosystem", a network of more than 70 companies, dozens providing services to veterans.
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they → feed → veterans
An internal diagram shows how companies in the VBA ecosystem worked together to bill DVA for different services for veterans, while other companies serviced the entities themselves, including a marketing company that billed the rest of the entities for "leads".
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that → show → leads
Here's how it worked.
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it → work → ?
Veterans would see a targeted ad offering anything from free headphones, backpacks and smart watches to dream holiday competitions.
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Veterans → see → competitions
To enter or sign up they had to provide their DVA details.
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they → enter → details
Next, veterans would get a call asking if they wanted a range of "free" DVA funded services.
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they → get → services
"If you say yes, then you've really opened the door for multiple calls.
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you → say → calls
They're going to try to find every procedure, every process that they can put you through," Jon Hays, a former manager at one of the companies, Medibase Health, said.
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Hays → go → companies
"There was veterans calling saying, 'I'm being called every day of the week.
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I → be → week
I don't need that service.
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I → need → service
Why do they call me all the time?'" he said.
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he → call → me
In some cases veterans had no idea who was calling them or what was being billed against their DVA number by practitioners they had never even spoken to.
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they → have → practitioners
Veterans say they were misled
The VBA marketing machine was working.
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machine → say → ?
An internal email shows, as early as 2022, Nick Flanigan boasting that a business he and Tom Bailey co-owned had amassed a database with 180,000 veterans' details in it.
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he → show → it
The next year he emailed some of the entities to suggest a marketing campaign to "hit more aggressive KPIs and grow the database even more".
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he → email → database
It was pitched as a way "to give back to the veterans community", but behind the scenes there was a plan to harvest another 10,000 veterans' details.
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It → pitch → details
Once a winner was chosen, social workers would call those who missed out and offer them a $200 voucher — but only if the veteran signed up to their internal GP care program, which was billed to DVA.
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which → choose → DVA
Last year another promotion to get a free smart watch included the disclaimer that veterans first had to complete 12 mental health sessions.
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veterans → get → sessions
The freebie strategy enticed veterans and effectively unlocked the ability for companies in the ecosystem to bill DVA for the initial $90 social work call, plus hundreds of dollars more for repeated psychology and counselling services.
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companies → entice → services
Veterans could then be referred onwards for more services like exercise physiology and medicinal cannabis.
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Veterans → refer → physiology
An internal email shows one veteran complaining some of the mental health check in calls were "less than 5 minutes in duration most weeks, and regularly cut abruptly short".
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some → show → duration
They described it as "a scam primarily for you to probably get some form of government funding for each person you engage".
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you → describe → person
Many of the terms and conditions of the competitions ban veterans from making defamatory or derogatory public comments online, but email complaints show the feedback was scathing.
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feedback → ban → comments
"You say 'no strings attached' but then you have to accept a 'social workers' call.
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you → say → call
This is disgraceful and misleading to veterans," one veteran wrote.
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veteran → write → veterans
"You just want to get money from DVA not worried about the veteran," said another.
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another → want → veteran
"You are scammers and cheats and…I am reporting you," a third veteran said.
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veteran → report → you
Health providers aren't allowed to use advertising to offer inducements to DVA clients and there are strict rules about how companies can advertise services for veterans.
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companies → allow → veterans
…and 59 more, not listed.
The Aporia