ID / emotional abuse fraud?

[Claudia]

Hi I need advice for a relative. She is 33 yrs, Australian born. She lived with another family member (carer) from age about 4 to 21 due to her parents incarceration.There was a lot of physical abuse in the home with he natural children. At 21 she left Australia suddenly to live with her mother overseas. She returned to Australia this year back to the careers house. She found out the carer has been operating a company in her name for the past ten years with to financials returned. They won’t give her any info about the operations. Distraught she reached out to me and I arranged alternate accommodation for her. Feeling safe she has now disclosed the carer emotionally manipulated her into marrying an immigrant and that was the reason she left at 21 yrs, despite she was a reluctant participant she was paid 2K for the marriage. She has no idea what happened after that if a visa was granted to the guy ect. She is iemotionally destroyed, trying to start a new job and move forward. She is on a very low wage. She feels ashamed, embarrassed and displays all the symptoms PTSD. I am not equipped to provide advice, other than I told her perhaps she should consider closing the company, and bank account and when ATO ask about the returns she can tell them her story. It’s heartbreaking to see the level of emotional control and abuse she endured and the consequences she is facing. Telling her story to defend herself will be a major milestone for her. Please advice what expertise of legal practice she should be looking for and if closing down the company is the best idea to put this material into the correct authorities?

 

[joelynnpamplin]

It was very hard for me to read the story of this girl from a moral point of view. I'm a very strong empathy, and even a text-written post about the difficult fate of all the girls is hard for me to write. My heart aches for every offended little girl who grew up in conditions of the strongest manipulation and intimidation. She needs to close the company opened in her name. She should also check her documents on a fake id checker to find out if there are any loans, mortgages, and other businesses in her name that are obliged to pay taxes to the state. I'm worried that she won't prove her guardian's involvement in all these speculations. She is unlikely to be able to prove now that he manipulated her. However, I hope she'll find a sincere prosecutor who will help her accuse her guardian. I want this man to appear before the eyes of the law of Australia.

 

[Ricardo]

I'm sorry to hear about this.
You have posted this in the 'defamation' forum, which is a civil matter; I can suggest that you post this in a different forum, as it sounds like there may be some serious criminal activity involved.
Thus, it is likely that she should talk to the police, and/or Legal Aid or a community legal clinic.
Although defamation may technically be something at play here, it is definitely not your first avenue to be looking at, and tends to be very expensive, and would not be worth it if either side has no money. Defamation is something you may be able to consider at a much later date, once other matters are attended to. Technically defamation has a statute of limitations of 1 year since the "publication", but the court may grant a longer time (I think up to 3 years in exceptional circumstances) so that would be the only point thinking about. Here it is unclear what the "publication" would be in this scenario, whether verbal or otherwise.
So again, defamation proceedings doesn't really doesn't seem to be at play here. Instead, criminal proceedings are much more likely, and would be free once the police get involved.