A prominent far-right commentator from the United States claims she has suffered financial losses amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars due to her unsuccessful Australian tour, leaving ticket holders without refunds.
Candace Owens initially planned to visit Australia in November 2024. However, her visa application was denied by the government, citing her potential to “incite discord” as the reason.
Owens made another attempt to bring her show to Australia in March 2025, but once again, her visa was denied. This decision was later affirmed by the High Court in October 2025.
As a result, thousands of her fans are now left in uncertainty regarding the refund of their tickets for the canceled event.
A report submitted to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) on March 3 suggests that refunds are unlikely to be issued.
The tour’s promoter, Rocksman, has gone bankrupt, leaving just 21 cents in its bank account and lacking the resources to initiate any legal action to reclaim the owed funds.
Liquidator David Sampson reported the company would never be able to issue refunds for Owens’ tour as it had no insurance to cover the event’s cancellation and already spent the money from ticket sales.
Owens claimed she also lost a significant amount of money to the tour after being misled by Rocksman, The Guardian reported.
Far-right American commentator Candace Owens (above) claimed she lost hundreds of thousands of dollars over her cancelled Australian tour
Turning Point Australia head Joel Jammal (above) believed about 15,000 tickets were sold to Owens’ Australian shows
She claimed the promoter had promised to cover the legal costs of challenging her visa rejection in the High Court.
‘Candace’s team ended up paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal bills, as well as providing numerous loans to Rocksman to make refunds [before] it became apparent that their assurances were meaningless,’ Owens’ spokesperson said.
Owens’ team also only learned of Rocksman’s liquidation after seeing media reports in January.
‘Right up until the last day, they were still promising us that refunds were just around the corner,’ Owens’ spokesperson claimed.
Liquidator reports indicate the sole director and shareholder of Rocksman is George Zacharia.
A major sponsor of the event was Turning Point Australia – an arm of late right-wing activist Charlie Kirk’s US group – which is headed by Joel Jammal.
Jammal claimed about 15,000 tickets were sold for Owens’ Australian tour, which started at $95 and reached up to $1,500 for VIP tickets.
The main sponsor of the tour, bullion dealer As Good As Gold, also claimed to be owed $80,000.
Owens (pictured with late far-right activist Charlie Kirk) was denied a visa to Australia as the government found she had ‘capacity to incite discord’
Its co-director Jarrad Panes claimed Rocksman had sworn to refund its sponsorship after the tour was cancelled.
‘It’s like, what have you done with all of this money?’ Panes said of Rocksman.
Rocksman director Zacharia and Turning Point Australia head Jammal also worked with Damien Costas, the former publisher of magazine Penthouse Australia, to organised Owens’ tour.
Costas was previously involved in the tours of two other right-wing figures Milo Yiannopoulos and Nigel Farage. He also helped Jammal in establishing Turning Point Australia.
Neither Costas nor Jammal have any business responsibility for Rocksman.
Zacharia donated to Turning Point Australia’s 2023 election campaign in NSW, which Jammal said was unrelated to the situation with Owens’ tour.
Jammal previously told ticket holders of Owens’ tour that they would be refunded following the October High Court verdict, however later clarified he wasn’t then aware of Rocksman’s financial issues.
Preliminary investigations by the liquidator suggest Rocksman may have continued to trade while insolvent.
The company was found to owe more than $760,000, including to ticket holders and employees.
The liquidator also identified $385,000 of transactions that could be ‘unreasonable director-related transactions … in favour of a director, a close associate of the director or to a person on behalf of [either]’.
The liquidator is continuing to investigate.
