A cult leader in Australia says he is the reincarnated form of Leonardo da Vinci and that he received a spiritual vision on a toilet. Somehow, despite all of this out in the open, he’s been able to scam a number of people.

Serge Benhayon, a former tennis coach and the leader of the “Universal Medicine” cult in New South Wales, was found by a NSW Supreme Court jury late last year to be a “charlatan who preys on cancer patients.” He was also found to have ripped off his own followers for millions of dollars, and to have an “indecent interest” in girls as young as 10 (who he invited to his house overnight).

Benhayon was exposed by the court as part of a defamation lawsuit he brought against a former client, but now an investigation by Channel 7 in Australia has revealed his scam is continuing and his membership base is still growing.

Chanel 7’s investigation, which deemed Benhayon “Australia’s most powerful cult leader,” reportedly spanned more than six years and included interviews with critics and supporters alike.

Despite the damning Supreme Court findings, Mr Benhayon is still practising his “healing work” across the world, with hundreds of new members signing up every year. The man at the centre of the Supreme Court case has gone from bankrupt tennis coach to living Messiah and property mogul in a few short years. Mr Benhayon established his religion, Universal Medicine, in 1999 after allegedly receiving a spiritual epiphany while sitting on the toilet. “I just gave myself a time to sit and feel that moment and I could feel something really, really beautiful,” he said in a video obtained by Sunday Night. Mr Benhayon claims to be the reincarnation of Leonardo da Vinci and calls himself the “Ascended Master” or “One of The Hierarchy”.

You can’t make this stuff up, people. The location of his “epiphany” should’ve been a clear sign that he was full of crap. The fact that he’s still operating his fraudulent business is a travesty.

Mr Benhayon has claimed his religion doesn’t “keep people in a compound” or “lock the doors”, but he does demand extreme devotion from his members in return for the “Ageless Wisdom” he imparts. Instead, hundreds of his followers have chosen to live close to his sprawling northern NSW estate, where he lives with his family and drives Audis. He believes Audis are the only “energetically balanced” car in the world and will not drive any other vehicle. He has also recently established a global headquarters, in the English countryside, where he has recruited hundreds more followers.

If anyone knows what he means by Audis being “energetically balanced,” please let us all know. In the meantime, it’s frightening that his brand of vague “spiritual” nonsense has been convincing to enough people that he’s getting rich off of their gullibility. Just because the consequences aren’t even worse doesn’t mean he hasn’t done enough damage.

