The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) was designed to empower Australians with disabilities, but for Tanya-Lee Quinn, a former CEO of the now-suspended NDIS provider Cocoon SDA Care, it has become a battleground against systemic fraud and regulatory failure.
In an exclusive interview, Quinn revealed the shocking financial and compliance irregularities she uncovered during her brief tenure at Cocoon in August 2023, alongside her broader concerns about the NDIS’s vulnerability to exploitation.
Her story paints a damning picture of a system failing its most vulnerable participants.
A week that changed everything
Hired as CEO of Cocoon SDA Care to bring “legitimacy” to the brand, Quinn lasted less than a week before being escorted off the premises after raising alarms about the company’s operations.
“I was brought in not during a crisis, but to be a white face, someone who looked trustworthy,” Quinn said, recalling how co-founder Zaffar Khan explicitly told her they needed a polished front because he “looked like a cab driver.”
What she discovered was far from legitimate: “It was a front, not a functioning care organisation.”
Quinn uncovered large undocumented payments to overseas companies with no invoices or contracts, a CFO with no oversight of funds, and employee personal documents being sent to an unregistered office in Pakistan.
Most alarming, individuals in Pakistan were allegedly using Australian staff’s PRODA logins to access the NDIS portal and claim funds, a “massive security and ethical breach.”
The midterm audit was a “farce,” with staff admitting to withholding information, hiding properties, and lying to auditors. “There were no board reports, no governance, and no clinical oversight. Compliance was non-existent,” Quinn said.
Before being removed, Quinn downloaded critical evidence, including internal CFO reports showing unexplained spending, investor reports misrepresenting the company’s health, payroll files revealing unpaid staff, and communications exposing unauthorised NDIS portal access.
“This wasn’t just one or two oversights. It was systemic, reckless, and deliberate,” she said. “I kept that evidence because I knew regulators wouldn’t act without it, and sadly, even with it, they still didn’t.”
A hostile exit and a fight for justice
Quinn’s decision to speak out came at a personal cost. “It was hostile. I was treated like a threat, not because I did something wrong, but because I knew too much,” she said of being escorted out.
“Zaffar actually said, ‘We need to find a nice way to make this girl go away.’ I took that as a threat, and I reported it.” Choosing to blow the whistle, she contacted then-NDIS Minister Bill Shorten’s office, ASIC, the ATO, and the NDIS Commission in August 2023.
Despite initial responsiveness from Shorten’s team, “it dwindled after a week or so,” and no substantive action followed. “I was asked by NDIS staff to keep quiet so as not to tip them off and spoil the investigation,” she said, but by September 2023, no progress had been made.
“They didn’t do anything towards preventing the fallout, and all those vulnerable people were left to transition themselves.”
It wasn’t until May 2025, nearly two years later, that the NDIS Commission suspended Horizon SolSolutions, Cocoon’s parent company, for 30 days due to “serious safeguarding concerns” identified during targeted site visits. The suspension left up to 438 participants scrambling to find new providers, with some forced to relocate.
Quinn believes the delay stemmed from a “bloated, under-resourced, and politically risk-averse” system. “Cocoon weren’t just misleading investors and regulators, they were hobnobbing with politicians and stacking their connections behind the scenes,” she said, alleging ex-ministers were on the payroll and political donations were made to secure influence.
A “Cash-Flow Siphon” Masquerading as Care
Quinn described Cocoon as “a cash-flow siphon dressed up as a care service.” Care was never the priority; investor confidence was. “Everything was geared toward PR, social media, staged home openings,” she said.
“Meanwhile, participants were left without qualified staff, clinical needs were ignored, and payments were shuffled between related entities.”
A significant portion of revenue came from investors misled by promises of “care packages” or franchises, while many properties sat vacant, and investors saw no returns.
“Lots of them changed the locks and went on to sign agreements with other SIL providers,” Quinn noted, highlighting years of legal disputes that regulators seemingly ignored.
The personal toll of whistleblowing
As a single mother, Quinn faced immense personal and professional challenges after speaking out. “I lost income, credibility (for a while), and peace of mind,” she said. “I had to borrow $20,000 from my parents, not because they had it to spare, but because they believed in me.”
Fearing for her safety, she left her home for six weeks, sent her daughter to live with family, and arranged for a police officer to house-sit. “Whistleblowers in this sector are treated like liabilities,” she said.
“We need legal protection, financial support, and direct access to fast-track investigation pathways. If we don’t protect the truth-tellers, the system will keep protecting the liars.”
Determined to prove ethical care is possible, Quinn used the borrowed funds to launch a small NDIS provider committed to transparency and participant-focused services.
She is also developing an app called ProviderCheck, a public-facing register to help participants make informed choices about providers based on performance, sanctions, and audit outcomes.
A broken system in need of overhaul
Quinn’s experience underscores broader failures in NDIS oversight. “The oversight is cosmetic, ‘tick and flick’ audits, minimal follow-up, and no real deterrents,” she said.
“Good providers drown in red tape while bad ones exploit the loopholes.” She argues the NDIS enables exploitation by rewarding those who game the system while leaving vulnerable participants and ethical providers exposed.
To address these issues, Quinn proposes a sweeping reform package: an independent integrity watchdog with real enforcement powers, a public provider risk register, clinically informed funding decisions, mandatory conflict-of-interest disclosures, robust whistleblower protections, independent allocation of auditors, and strict separation of provider roles to prevent conflicts of interest.
“These are not radical demands, they’re minimum standards for any system claiming to serve vulnerable people,” she said. “We don’t need more reports. We need consequences. We need accountability.”
A call for trust and transparency
The biggest challenge facing the NDIS, according to Quinn, is trust. “Participants don’t trust providers. Providers don’t trust the NDIA. No one trusts the Commission,” she said.
Yet she sees opportunity in rebuilding the system by “cutting out the grifters, investing in ethical innovation, and actually listening to the people doing the work.” She also holds the NDIA and NDIS Commission accountable for their role in enabling harm.
“When they control the funding, set the framework, and make the decisions that dictate service delivery, they hold power, and with power comes responsibility,” she said.
“If the NDIA has the power to deny safety, then they carry the duty to own the consequences.”
Bravo to Ms Quinn. We need more Whistle blowers to expose those big organisations truly sorting the NDIA system. It is them that politicians need to be focussing on when they discuss cutting budgets and funding.
Those illegitimate rorters are the ones who need to suffer not those of us disabled who need the assistance.
Quinn is an extremely brave woman….we need more like her, but it seems the Labor government doesn’t like whistle blowers who upset their hidden apple carts.That has been made obvious during the last few years.
It is extremely sad, and dangerous, when we have a government which encourages rorts, thievery and deception.
Unfortunately we now have another 3 years of this Labour governments rorts. It seems they are not concerned about people with disabilities
Wherever there is government funding there is rorting. “PROVIDERS” of all services are profit-driven…the NDIS, WorkCover, Training facilities etcetera.
I hope Ms Quinn is successful with her exposure and the politicians responsible show some integrity in setting up a proper enquiry with teeth!
When they’ve finished with the NDIS exposure they should look at the Aged Care industry and the rorting going on there with PROVIDERS.
I feel your pain the same thing happen to me me in aged care you spy up and your shown the door because you care. These companies don’t want care it’s all about the money. I was forced to leave a job I loved. And I work for catholic heath care So they are all greed driven. Feed residents with garbage get un Trained works. As like ng as they look good. People need to take the blinders off see what really happens in NDIS & aged care.
Your a strong women and always will be they are a nasty Webb of people I’ve had my suspicions for a long time as well. Sadly they have squirmed their way into the world of greed they are their own Mobb unfortunately they have involved my family member it’s made me puke how they have damaged really good people that thought things were real instead only used them in their mafia tactics .You keep fighting girl ……
How do these people sleep at night, exploiting other people in such a deplorable way.
This is absolutely criminal and shocking.The dodgy Providers should be rooted out.A system.like the NDIS is rife for corruption.lt was never intended to be like this.The fact that ex ministers are on the payroll.Funds going overseas etc and many NDIS businesses have shut down is tragic.This Service was set up to help the Disabled, not to enable serious fraud.