MELBOURNE, VIC. — On Tuesday, August 25, 2026, journalist and editor of VicNews, Ashley Geelan, purchased a ticket to Monica Smit’s ‘Reignite Democracy Australia’s ‘Bye Bye GVT’ event. Now Smit faces serious problems for her ongoing grifting operations.
As Smit appealed a legal costs order, which was dismissed in May 2026, it left her exposed to the original costs bill of $250,000 as well as additional appeal expenses.
This also means that Smit can’t use her usual grift of asking her followers to ‘donate’, as doing so would not look good in court.
Smit thinks that Avi Yemini is a journalist (he isn’t) and Rebel News is a bona fide media outlet (it isn’t), and Smit fell for the trap. VicNews did not buy a $10 ticket to one of Smit’s grifting gigs to actually attend such, and VicNews never received the ticket anyway.
VicNews bought the ticket for one purpose only. To see if Smit would fall for the ‘honey trap’, and she did, hook, line and sinker.
We asked others to contact us seeking further answers about whether they too had been ‘grifted by Smit ‘, and many had.
So now, part two commences.
Part two is simple. Smit still owes the court $250k and hasn’t paid it. We have all the evidence of Smit’s continual and ongoing online grifting.
But she’s soon, hopefully, to be ‘cut off at the pass’.
Nobody is seeking Smit to be locked up or such. Yet. But as she owes the court $250k and has grifted so much money off of others, our $10 was just the proof of such first-hand, well, many, including this masthead, have applied to court for one thing only, and it is not a jail sentence, nor even a Community Corrections Order (CCO).
Smit has used online for her grifting operation. So, that is all that will be sought from the courts. A ‘no publication order’ which Magistrates can and do impose – we’ve had one imposed on us in the past, so it is absolutely possible.
All that is being sought, whilst the matters are before the court, is a “no publication order” which would mean Smit can no longer publish online, whether such is conducted via X(Twitter), Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Telegram, WhatsApp or anywhere else online. Online. Anywhere.
There is also no need to ask Your Honour to include people, such as Avi Yemini, who Smit may ask to publish on her behalf, as such a ruling includes getting third parties to do so on one’s behalf automatically.
Then, Smit can no longer publish online whilst the matter is before the courts, which is now unlikely to be heard until 2027 and then a five-year ‘no online publication’ order will be sought.
No one will be, although entitled to such, seeking financial compensation, nor will anyone be asking the court that Smit is jailed for alleged fraud. No. All that will be asked of the court is to impose a five-year ban on Smit publishing online via any online platform.
Yes, it can happen and is enforceable, as it – many years ago – happened to this very masthead.
This way, Smit is cut off at the grift. If she is ordered to do so, then sends out a Telegram rant, well, she’s just broken a court order, and off to jail she goes. Won’t be publishing online much from a women’s prison.
VicNews did not buy a ticket to Smit’s ‘GVT’ event to actually attend. It was part of this investigation into Smit’s grifts.
This masthead bought the ticket to see whether what we’d seen online of others complaining about giving Smit money, both for her ‘talc powder’ and online campaigns, was true. This masthead bought a ticket from Smit that we never received, thereby proving what some had said online about ‘being ripped off by Smit’ was correct, as that’s exactly what Smit did to this masthead.
This masthead never received our $10 back from Smit, despite several requests.
It’s time to bring Smit’s grifts to an end.
All it took was an unsupplied $10 event ticket.
Monica Smit did not respond to a request for comment.
