The job ad that was too good to be true

The position promised "genuine ??? uncapped earnings" of between $120,000 and $180,000 with no experience necessary, apart from a background in sales.

"Are you an experienced sales person and keen to make good money working full-time or part-time? Join our successful niche business," read the advertisement, on jobs website Seek.

It seemed innocent enough, but there was a catch. It was part of a sophisticated and potentially illegal visa scam that offered tens of thousands of dollars to businesses in exchange for visa sponsorship.

The company behind the advertisement was National Business Services Pty Ltd, and the man behind the company, on his email, went by the initials "LJR" - Lubo Jack Raskovic.

Raskovic is a 59-year-old former security consultant who has twice been banned from managing a company by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

On Tuesday, a joint SBS-Fairfax investigation revealed that Raskovic had collected more than a million dollars from hopeful migrants, while promising them jobs and a pathway to a permanent visa. But in dozens of cases, his clients never found their dream job, leaving them tens of thousands of dollars out of pocket and forcing some to leave Australia.

But these details were left out of Raskovic's sales pitch when he met with Gibbs last week.

In a room at the Mooloolaba Surf Club in Queensland, he outlined to Gibbs his business model.

"It all seemed a little dodgy," Gibbs said. "I didn't feel comfortable in the interview and then when he explained how he conducted the business I knew, there and then, it wasn't legal."

Raskovic followed up with an email to potential employees. Fairfax Media has sighted one of these emails that reveals, for the first time, how Raskovic's business works.

According to the email, Raskovic hires consultants who operate as job scouts in regional locations. Their job is to scrounge around for employers willing to offer visa sponsorship, even if they had to go door to door.

These employers are offered a $12,500 "incentive" to be paid as "a training subsidy ??? when individuals obtain permanent residency or [a] visa".

The money is promised to be paid in two parts - firstly a $2500 payment within two weeks followed by a $10,000 payment "paid on permanent residency approval".

In exchange for finding an employer, the job scouts receive $5000 - half payable when a job placement is agreed and half "upon completion, lodgement and approval of all requisite employer sponsorship documentation".

But the job had some potential hidden downsides. Under current laws it is illegal to receive, offer or provide money in exchange for a sponsored work-visa arrangement. The penalties include up to two years' imprisonment and a fine of $75,600 for an individual and $378,000 for companies.

The laws don't just cover employers who accept payment in return for sponsoring a visa, they apply to any person in the supply chain. In fact, money doesn't have to change hands to break the law, the mere offer is enough.

Griffith University academic Peter Lee, who is also a migration agent and a former migration specialist at the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, examined the Raskovic email at Fairfax Media's request.

"On the basis of information provided it does not appear legal," he said. "The risk of prosecution will be real; namely all three, or more, parties in the chain could be affected namely, the prospective sponsor, the prospective visa applicant and the intermediary and others that may be associated in the activity."

The sample script sent to potential employees. Photo: Supplied

A spokesman from the Department of Immigration and Border Protection would not say whether it was investigating Raskovic's scheme but said it "investigates all allegations regarding paying for visa sponsorship".

Fairfax Media asked Mr Raskovic whether the scheme was legal, but he did not responded to questions.

Many of Raskovic's clients are seeking visas under the government's regional sponsored migration scheme. The scheme enables employers in regional and low-population areas to sponsor skilled employees. It allows a successful applicant and their family to live in Australia and work permanently in a regional area. It's a popular visa with more than 10,000 placements in the past financial year.

Raskovic's scheme brings together hopeful migrants with regional employers in the hope the partnership will result in a sponsored visa under the scheme. But his services come with a hefty cost - as much as $70,000, with much of it paid upfront. Many borrowed money from family and friends in their home country to pay his fees. Raskovic also provides migration advice and visa application documents to prospective employers.

However, in many cases the job doesn't work out. Former clients told Fairfax often the job is not what was explained to them. At other times, clients have no confirmation that a job actually exists, because they are restricted from speaking to the employer.

One employer, approached by Fairfax Media last week, said he had "never heard" of Raskovic or his company, despite being named in a letter of offer given to a former client.

Demand for the regional visa has been growing, but the number of placements has fallen. In 2016-17 there were 19,926 applications received compared to 17,533 applications in 2015-16. During that same time the number of placements dropped from 12,269 to 10,198.

It's unclear whether the Immigration Department has prosecuted any breaches of the visa although it says it has a number of active investigations.

Harmandeep Brar, 24, from Melbourne, says he paid Raskovic around $45,000 in fees for a job.

"I had to ring my parents, as we are on a student visa and we didn't have that much money," he said. "My parents had to bring back money from India."

Trained as an automotive mechanic, Brar was offered a job at a waste company fixing diesel machines. He said he told Raskovic, through representatives of his company Global Skills & Business Services Pty Ltd, he wasn't qualified to work on these machines.

After being assured he would be trained, he travelled to Chinchilla in regional Queensland where he worked for waste company We Kando Pty Ltd. He was fired within two months and returned to Melbourne. We Kando declined to comment.

"When I told my family back in India I was very depressed - they had given me money and this guy had scammed me," he said.

Brar chased Raskovic for a refund, which had been promised in his contract, but Raskovic stopped answering his messages.

In October, Global Skills was placed into liquidation with debts of around $2.5 million, leaving 45 creditors, mostly Indian migrants, out of pocket.

Meanwhile, Raskovic in the year before going into liquidation, bought luxury cars, including a brand new Porsche and a $3 million mansion in Bella Vista, in Sydney's north-west, under a separate company.

In the months leading up to the liquidation, invoices seen by SBS-Fairfax show companies linked to Raskovic sought payment for more than $1 million in fees, including almost $200,000 to a company run by his daughter, Sarah Raskovic. She declined to answer questions when asked about the payments.

Fairfax has also learned that Raskovic hasn't been banned just once, but twice, by the corporate regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. In 1999 he was also disqualified from managing a corporation for four years.

This disqualification forced Raskovic to resign from the board of his companies in February 1999. However months after resigning, his mother joined one of his companies. Raskovic would later tell the Industrial Relations Commission, as part of an unfair dismissal case, that his mother had no "active role in the management of the company". The commission ultimately found "evidence ??? capable of giving rise to the inference that [Mr Raskovic] remained involved in the operational and legal affairs of the corporate group during the period of his disqualification".

As part of the same case, the commission was told that contracts distributed by Raskovic's company were "unfair" and "against the public interest", and some documents were shown to be backdated, although the commission found the evidence was "not sufficient to found an inference of fraud".

Recently, Raskovic has begun working for a new company - All Borders Pty Ltd - set up just weeks before Global Skills went broke, and operating from the same office under a similar business model. It's owned by his partner, Neo Tau, who shares his Bella Vista mansion.

But the recent spate of job advertisements are in the name of another company again - National Business Services - set up in June.

Raskovic has declined an interview and has not responded to written questions.

Gibbs said he wasn't aware of Raskovic's past but, after meeting him, he had a "gut feeling" something wasn't right.

"I then went home and searched his name and found out that his business practices are rotten," he said.

Gibbs didn't take the job.

"No job is worth breaking the law for."