101. The Missing (Melissa Caddick)
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This podcast is supported by FX's English Teacher, a new comedy from executive producers of What We Do in the Shadows and Baskets. English Teacher follows Evan, a teacher in Austin, Texas, who learns if it's really possible to be your full self at your job, while often finding himself at the intersection of the personal, professional, and political aspects of working at a high school. FX's English Teacher premieres September 2nd on FX. Stream on Hulu.

This episode of Swindled may contain graphic descriptions or audio recordings of disturbing events which may not be suitable for all audiences. Listener discretion is advised. There is something special about being an Australian and today I experienced, I experienced, along with everybody else I had to queue up to cast my vote and the bloke in front of me turned around and said "Oh hello"

And he had a Labor Party how to vote ticket and he didn't have a Liberal one and he said, "Well it's nice to meet you but I'm not going to vote for you." Now that is a, can I say, that is a celebration of what Australia is all about. There is something very special, there is something unique about our nation and about being Australian.

and I commit myself and my future government to the service of all of the Australian people. Thank you.

One of John Howard's first orders of business, after being elected Prime Minister of Australia in 1996, was to commission a review of the country's financial sector. The new pro-business conservative government pushed for deregulation to facilitate greater competition and efficiency amid rapid globalization and technological innovation. The Wallace Committee's recommendations that the Howard government eventually adopted led to radical financial reform.

One result is the establishment of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission , the public corporate watchdog, similar to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. In addition to corporate governance, ASIC would also be responsible for consumer protection, which had become more important than ever after the Wallace Committee established the Self-Managed Superannuation Fund.

Australia's superannuation funds are a hybrid of Social Security and a 401 . It's a government-mandated retirement account to which both employee and employer contribute. The funds cannot be withdrawn without penalty until the employee reaches retirement age. Traditionally, superannuation funds are managed and invested by a trustee. However, as a result of the Wallace inquiry, Australians were given the option to self-manage their own.

Doing so would give the average person more control over their investments. But managing one's own super requires far more responsibility in terms of complying with financial and tax law. That's why many people who opt for a self-managed super hire a qualified licensed financial advisor to manage their self-managed superannuation funds on their behalf.

based on a recommendation from her brother-in-law. Beth Spence and her husband hired a financial advisor named Brad Sherwin, the principal owner of Sherwin Financial Planners. Brad had been in business in Brisbane since 1986. He was knowledgeable, affable, and not too flashy. He was so accommodating that he would personally come to your house or your deathbed to discuss your family's investment needs.

Brad Sherwin would almost always nudge his clients toward the self-managed superannuation fund, which he guaranteed would result in 10% returns. Most clients assumed Sherwin achieved these higher-than-average returns by trading blue-chip stocks, Beth Spence included. She and her husband, Mick, handed over half a million dollars to Sherwin Financial Planners with a promise from Brad that they would never have to worry about money again.

So they didn't. And 16 years later, in 2012, the Spences retired comfortably. It was a memorable year. They attended their daughter's wedding, sold the family home, moved to their quote "little piece of paradise" in Yamba New South Wales, and then lost everything. In December 2012, Beth and Mick Spence received a phone call informing them that ASIC had raided Brad Sherwin's office.

A month later, Sherwin Financial planners completely collapsed. All $500,000 of the Spence family's investment, a lifetime of work, was gone. This is Beth on SBS Insight. Unbelievable. I just could have pinched me. I thought it was like so surreal that I was not in this world. This was not happening to us. We had just recently retired.

Brad Sherwin was also missing. But within hours, the police found him standing on the Story Bridge in Brisbane, threatening to jump. Brad told them that people had lost money and that he had, quote, gone there to end it.

Earlier that day, Brad Sherwin had sent letters to two associates he blamed for the company's demise. "'You must die,' he wrote to a man named Bill Redmond. "'I have paid for a contract on you. Nobody can help you, so start looking in the shadows.'"

He also wrote to Hayden Williams, who worked at Sandhurst Trustees, the trustee overseeing Sherwin's company. Sherwin just wanted to inform Hayden that there was also a contract on his head. Sometime in the next five years, he will die painfully, he wrote.

Brad Sherwin, who later said that he did not remember writing those letters, was taken to the hospital for a psychological evaluation. He received 18 months probation for those threats, only because the judge noted Mr. Sherwin had other matters to worry about, a reference to the $60 million that was missing. $60 million. $60 million. $60 million, yes. $60 million.

Most of it would never be recovered. Instead of stocks, Brad Sherwin was loaning his investors money out to property developers without their knowledge through his property lending business, Wickham Securities. Wickham offered short-term financing for property deals at 30-40% interest rates. It makes you wonder what kind of borrower would be interested in that deal when a traditional bank's rates would be much lower. The answer is a risky one.

After the global financial crisis in 2008, Sherwin's developer clients started defaulting on their loans one after another. Without funds coming in, Sherwin resorted to using his investment planning clients' self-managed superannuation funds to pay his company's debt and taxes. He set up money market deposit accounts for each client at the Bank of Queensland.

through a fund manager, DDH Graham. And for years, Sherwin directed subordinates to transfer money in and out of clients' retirement funds in a desperate attempt to keep his business afloat. In addition to home renovations, the purchase of two luxury apartments, and a racehorse for his wife, named Boomalicious.

Brad Sherwin supplied his clients with fake financial statements and doctored word docs to cover his tracks. According to those statements, over $60 million in principal investments, supposed returns, and debt was owed to 400 clients and creditors.

Sherwin allegedly misappropriated $10 million from 39 clients for his own personal and business use. Bradley Sherwin was the director of Sherwin Financial Planners. He stole nearly $10 million from 39 victims, many of them elderly. He convinced them to set up self-managed superannuation funds, but then transferred their money for payments needed for his own company's.

Most of Brad Sherwin's victims were retired, blue-collar, hard-working people. Farmers, miners, refinery workers and their widows. He even ripped off his own cousin and lifelong friends. Many of Brad Sherwin's victims were forced to return to work.

Those that couldn't had to remortgage their homes just to survive. Entire life savings had vanished in the blink of an eye. And as a final slap in the face, the victims were forced to keep open their depleted self-managed superannuation funds for investigative purposes but couldn't afford the $3,500 annual compliance cost. So, they were fined by the Australian Tax Office.

How heavy is that guilt of knowing you accidentally ruined your family's future by being taken for a fool? The shame can be unbearable. Many of Sherwin's victims enlisted psychological help. Many were utterly hopeless. Some were full of rage. Bob Spence told the Courier-Mail that after learning he had lost $800,000, he'd come face to face with Brad Sherwin at a coffee shop while he was buttering his bread.

After ASIC completed its investigation, the CEO of Sherwin's property lending business, Garth Robertson, pleaded guilty to 21 fraud-related charges and was sentenced to five years in prison.

Brad Sherwin, the man in charge, pleaded guilty to 24 fraud counts. Brad reportedly took out a mortgage on his 100-year-old dementia-affected mother's house without her knowledge to pay for his legal bills. In November 2017, 63-year-old Brad Sherwin was sentenced to 10 years in prison. He would be out on parole in four years.

Ex-clients filled the courtroom to bid him farewell. They applauded when he was escorted out in handcuffs. Dickhead, someone yelled. Destroyed a lot of lives, as we've heard today. It's very hard to rebuild when you're in your 70s, 80s and 90s. I'm just devastated. It's ruined my life as a bit. The banking industry, the finance industry, they all need to

Brad Sherwin's assets were auctioned off to help repay his victims. His $2.15 million house sold for about half of what he had paid, and his autographed photo of Tiger Woods only fetched $29 at auction. Sherwin's victims will probably never be whole again.

But there were other avenues to explore to claw back their stolen fortunes. Defrauded clients filed a class action lawsuit against Sandhurst's trustee, the overseer of Sherwin's failed property lending business. Victims alleged that Sandhurst failed to exercise its duties. Sandhurst disagreed and admitted no fault but agreed to settle for almost $17 million. After legal and funding costs, investors received less than a third.

Another class action lawsuit against the Bank of Queensland and DDH Graham dragged on for years. Victims claimed that the bank and the fund manager should have known something was wrong based on the account's unusual activity. 300+ accounts at BOQ had opened in the victims' names without their permission. All the monthly statements were sent to a single post office box.

"Yes, I was caught by a fraudster," victim Nigel Jeffries told A Current Affair. "But it wouldn't have happened if a bank had just been doing its job." The Bank of Queensland and DDH Graham finally agreed to settle the case without liability in February 2018 for a combined $12 million. Federal Court Justice Bernard Murphy called it, quote, "possibly the worst settlement he had ever seen."

That's because lawyers and litigation costs accounted for 98% of the payout. Claimants would receive only $250,000 of the $12 million, the split among themselves. That amount was later increased to $4 million, or a third of the settlement.

But that amount would only be shared by 53 of the 380 victims in the class. The Bank of Queensland had successfully enforced the six-year statute of limitations, so everyone who had invested money with Brad Sherwin before 2010 was omitted from the settlement. Again, this is Beth Spence on SBS Insight. There was people in that action that received no money at all.

because they were cut out for other statute of limitations. There was nothing. They got absolutely zip. Yet the funders and the law firms could sit there and justify that they originally wanted 98% of our claim. So you lost faith in a sense in the justice system? Absolutely. I have absolutely no faith in the justice system. I have no trust in any financial advisor, anyone that offers me any information at all. No trust whatsoever. I cannot get that back.

The collapse of Sherwin Financial Planners and Wickham Securities was a massive scandal for the emerging self-managed superannuation fund sector, reportedly used by more than 1.1 million Australians

According to Australian Money Magazine, since August 2010, ASIC has imposed bans on 220 financial planners for Ponzi schemes and related frauds. Since 2008, 37 court convictions have been recorded against advisors. 18 have been sentenced to jail.

There's Ross Hopkins who stole about $3 million. Most recently, Gavin Feneff stole $3.3 million. There's David Campbell who made $36 million disappear. And there's Stefan Haugen who operated a $100 million Ponzi scheme which was discovered after his dead body washed up on a Sunshine Coast beach.

But most notoriously, there's Melissa Caddick, whose story permeated every form of Australian media. For victims of past financial crimes like Beth Spence, the coverage of each subsequent fraud provokes unwelcome memories. Each subsequent fraud is proof that nothing has changed.

"Nothing has changed," she told news.com.au. "These people who were defrauded by Melissa Caddick are suffering exactly the same way that we had. We have been totally destroyed. You wake up one morning and you think, 'I've got no money in the bank now. I've got no funds saved. What do I do? I'm 60 or 65 or 70 and I can't go back to work.' You've got to keep reliving it all the time. It's extremely hard."

Melissa Caddick did bring a lot of it back, Beth admits. I think she did just cut her foot off and she's still alive. A financial advisor goes missing on this episode of Swindled.

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Before you decide to start a self-managed super fund, you need to consider whether you can manage everything or whether you are prepared to pay self-managed super fund professionals to help. But remember, even if you have professionals help, SMSF trustees are ultimately responsible for their fund. You may want to seek some professional advice to help you decide if a self-managed super fund is right for you.

Melissa Louise Grimley's early adulthood started off a bit rocky. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, she fell victim to a romance scam in her early 20s. Her parents, Barb and Ted, hired a private investigator to dig up dirt on their daughter's con artist boyfriend. When they presented Melissa with the evidence, she was in denial and ran away with her misunderstood lover. Within days, she returned home unceremoniously dumped with maxed out credit cards.

Fortunately, Melissa was able to get back on track. In the early 90s, she took a secretarial and business administration course at a college in Sydney. Then she landed a job in the investment division of the National Roads and Motorists Association. By 1998, Melissa accepted an office administrator position at a small Sydney investment firm. She was fired six months later for forging her boss's signature on two checks totaling $15,000, which she had cashed and kept.

When confronted, Melissa admitted to it and was allowed to leave without charges being pressed. It didn't take long for Melissa to land on her feet. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Melissa's personal trainer introduced her to a financial advisor who worked at Wise Financial Services. Melissa was offered an office manager position but soon transitioned into a financial advisor role in which she flourished.

By 2003, Melissa had purchased a 25% stake in Wise Financial Services by borrowing $750,000. The company won Best Financial Practice of the Year in Independent Financial Advisor magazine that same year. A wise choice, the headline reads. Melissa's smiling face is on the cover, probably the same smile she wore while widening out entries on her client's investment forms to give herself both a commission and a flat fee.

Melissa was stealing from investors right off the top. She would play it off as an accident if anyone caught on to her intentional errors.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end. Melissa Caddick was out at Wise Financial by the following Christmas. Not because she was caught defrauding clients, but because apparently she and upper management didn't see eye to eye on specific investment strategies. Melissa recouped her $750,000 investment and announced she was leaving the industry entirely.

It was perfect timing. Melissa wanted to start a family. She married an English bloke named Tony Caddick in April 2000. He was a building laborer when they met, yet somehow the couple lived extravagantly. Even when Melissa worked, friends and acquaintances noticed that Caddick's styling seemed too big for their budget. But how?

When asked, Melissa would tell the story of how she received an $86 million bonus from Wise for selling a superannuation fund management program to a major institution. Or she'd say her wealth resulted from a large payout from a sexual harassment claim. Sometimes she'd say her fortune came from Bitcoin. Other times it was because her older brother, Adam Grimley, a chemist living in Singapore, was helping them out.

Whatever the case, Melissa Caddick's presentation was impressive in every way. Immaculate hair, immaculate clothing. Yet she had no job, and she had no issue putting the restaurant's salt and pepper shakers in her purse if she fancied them.

But soon Melissa Caddick's priorities would change. She got pregnant in 2006 at 34 years old. Melissa's personal trainer told the Daily Mail that the Caddicks were finally able to conceive through IVF after years of trying. Melissa cherished her newborn son.

When the boy turned four, the family relocated from Sydney to Essex, England to be closer to Tony Caddick's family. Tony had finished school and accepted a job as a corporate lawyer. Melissa was a stay-at-home mother but considered returning to the financial planning industry.

She would travel internationally to conferences for financial professionals to stay abreast of ever-evolving law and policy. Or that's what she told her husband, at least. In reality, Melissa Caddick was having an affair. The other man was Anthony Colletti, Melissa's hairdresser from Sydney, a high school dropout and aspiring music producer who used the moniker "Paws Off."

Anthony was 11 years younger than Melissa. They had almost nothing in common, but they shared the same birthday, so it was meant to be. Melissa had been a client of Anthony's for five years before leaving Australia. He said their emotional connection became evident during a final lunch at Brighton Beach. "We did not have any intimate contact at this time other than a farewell kiss," Anthony Coletti later wrote. "However, I believe Melissa fell in love with me, and I fell in love with her at this moment."

Melissa Caddick and Anthony Colletti maintained a secretive relationship while she was in England. He says she flew him out to meet her in New York in May 2011 and then again in Cyprus in September of that year where, according to Colletti, their physical relationship commenced. When Melissa returned home from a financial conference in Switzerland, Tony Caddick confronted his wife about the affair.

A friend of Tony's had spotted Melissa in Paris with another man. Anthony Coletti has denied having ever been to Paris, but neither he nor Melissa denied the relationship. Tony left the family home for a while to prepare for the divorce. When he returned, he found that the house had been cleaned out along with their joint bank accounts. After 18 months in the UK, Melissa Caddick returned to Australia with her son in early 2012.

Back home, Melissa demonized her estranged husband to her friends and family. She told them he was a controlling, abusive, unfaithful, and narcissistic con artist from which she had to escape. Soon after, Tony Kadic also moved back to Sydney to be closer to his son. Melissa changed her phone number.

On New Year's Eve 2013, Melissa Caddick married her hairdresser Anthony Colletti in an elaborate celebration that included three costume changes and a Gucci wedding dress. Less than a week later, the newlyweds and Melissa's son went on an $80,000 month-long holiday in Aspen. Melissa paid for it all herself, no problem. Her new financial services business was thriving.

She launched Malivor Proprietary Limited in October 2012. By the end of the year, she was managing more than $300,000 of her closest friends' and family's money. Word of mouth spread quickly about Melissa Caddick's fantastic investment returns. New clients were practically begging to get in, including a group of surgeons in Perth who Melissa's brother introduced.

In April 2014, Melissa Caddick and her husband Anthony Colletti purchased a $6.2 million mansion in Dover Heights, a coastal eastern suburb of Sydney. Four days after closing, the family took a trip to New York City for Easter. Then they went to Fiji in July, back to Aspen for Christmas, then to Bora Bora.

Melissa Caddick and Anthony Colletti lived lavishly like this for eight years until a chance encounter at a dentist's office. Dominique Ogilvie, a former fashion and estate agent, had a root canal scheduled for Thursday, August 13, 2020 with a dentist in Sydney's Central Business District. She struck up a conversation with the only other patient in the waiting room. Her name was Jennifer Porter. She told Dominique that she was a financial advisor.

What a coincidence, Dominique said. She had just recently moved her money over to a new financial advisor she had met on holiday in Aspen, Colorado earlier that year. They hit it off because they were both from Sydney. Their sons attended the same private school.

Anyway, she was amazing, Dominique Ogilvie declared. She had already earned 11% on Dominique's initial investment. So, Dominique said she just invested even more. That is amazing, Jennifer Porter probably agreed and asked. What's her name? Melissa Caddick, Dominique replied. Just then, a dental assistant called Dominique Ogilvie back to the treatment room. So good to meet you, she told Jennifer Porter as she walked away.

Jennifer Porter was quite alarmed. She knew who Melissa Caddick was. They'd worked together at Wise Financial Services more than 15 years ago, and they'd kept in touch. Jennifer had worked on insurance policies for Melissa and her family. More importantly, Melissa had also asked Jennifer Porter if she could use her financial services license to help a few high-net-worth clients invest in the stock market. Jennifer Porter politely declined.

Years later, she was contacted by the accountant wife of a Perth surgeon while doing some due diligence before investing with Melissa Caddick. That wife discovered that the financial services license number Melissa was using on her documentation belonged to Jennifer Porter. Operating without a financial services license is a crime in Australia, punishable by up to two years in prison.

Jennifer Porter did some more digging and discovered that Melissa Caddick had copied and pasted the language from Jennifer's marketing materials into her own. Jennifer Porter reported Caddick's shadiness to ASIC in November 2019 but was still waiting for a reply. She had filed an even more detailed complaint in June. Jennifer Porter left her phone number with the dentist's receptionist with a note for Dominique Ogilvie to call her. It was urgent.

The two women met later that day, immediately after Dominique contacted Melissa Caddick to withdraw her entire $2.5 million principal investment, along with the $380,000 profit that Melissa's documentation claimed she had made.

Dominique told Melissa that she had found a piece of property that she wanted to purchase. No problem, she was told. The money was returned to Dominique about a week later with a note from Melissa Caddick asking her to refer more people to quote our business now that you know what we do.

Instead, Dominique Ogilvie also referred Melissa Caddick to ASIC. A formal investigation was launched on September 8th, 2020. The agency's findings were distressing. Information gathered from banks and investors indicated that Melissa Caddick was not actually trading her investors' funds. Instead, Ms. Caddick had been spending it, all of it, almost entirely on herself.

Search warrants were authorized on November 9th, 2020. Melissa Caddick's 14 bank accounts containing about $4 million were frozen the following day. On November 11th, 2020 at 6:07 a.m., the Australian Federal Police knocked on Melissa Caddick and Anthony Colletti's front door. Melissa answered wearing active wear and running shoes. Her jaw almost hit the floor.

Melissa Caddick was served a 92-page ASIC affidavit. Over a dozen federal police and ASIC agents filed into the home, including ASIC project manager Isabella Allen, who led the investigation. Isabella Allen, investigator at ASIC. The entire raid spanned 12 hours. Are there any items listed on there that are on the premises? Yes. Yes? What items are they?

Phones, jewellery, computers, storage devices, records. Okay, and where are most of these located?

All over the house. All over the house? Okay. Federal agents filled 89 bags and boxes with seized evidence. There were tens of thousands of dollars worth of designer clothes, including Dolce and Gabbana party dresses and a $14,000 Oscar de la Renta ball gown. There were watches, wallets, and handbags, some of them made from the skin of a Burmese python, an endless amount of shoes. Artwork was removed from the walls. Their cars were searched.

"Everything is going to be okay," Anthony consoled his wife. "You haven't done anything wrong." Federal agents also collected Melissa Caddick's business records from Oliver. They seized her hard drives, including the one belonging to the home security system, and they took her MacBook, which had a Post-It note on it that read, quote, "It's going to be a good day." Melissa's dressing room had a safe full of foreign currency, which authorities counted and collected on camera.

In the dressing room, agents also found Melissa's prized jewelry collection. They sorted the pieces in front of her so she could provide estimates and identify if they belonged to her or her husband.

So do you want to just describe the items and then who they belong to? These belong to Anthony, these belong to me. There were cufflinks worth $8,000, a $34,000 engagement ring, $27,000 wedding bands, $40,000 earrings and bracelets, a $4,500 18 karat gold skull pendant with sapphires and diamond teeth,

and a custom-made diamond, emerald and black sapphire necklace called the Stella from her favorite jeweler Stefano Canturi worth at least $350,000. Hi Miss Kanek, are there any particularly high value items here? Just in terms of our safe storage. We intend to seize the majority of what you've just been taking through. It's like they're all high value. Okay, what would you consider high value?

For each piece? Yeah. The necklaces are 80 to 100. Is there anything more expensive than those? No.

The physical search of the residence was completed at about half past noon. Several digital forensic officers stayed behind for another six hours to digitally examine Caddick's devices. It's been reported that Melissa drank coffee, filed her nails, smoked a cigarette outside, and even took a nap. The only time she spoke out was to voice her displeasure. After hearing her jewelry clanged together in a box, Melissa's 14-year-old son stayed in his bedroom for the duration.

At 6:18pm, the raid was over. This is a record of conversation between Constable Amelia Griffin and Melissa Caddick resumed. Do you agree the time is now 6:18pm?

So the date is the 11th of November 2020, it's a Wednesday. So the search of the premises is now complete. During the search warrant process police secured a number of items to be either seized or moved. Those items have been packaged and labelled and recorded on property seizure or movement records.

So do you agree that F.A. Phil Steele, who was a property officer, went through the property seizure and movement records and showed you the items that they correspond to? Yes. Do you agree that is all the property that police are taking and that there is no other property not listed on the property seizure or movement records? Yes. And do you also agree that you signed the property seizure records? Yes. Okay. And I provided you with a copy of those? Yes.

Okay, so do you have any comments about the way the search warrant was conducted? No. Before we leave the premises, is there anything further you wish to say? No. Okay, so do you agree the time is now 6:19pm on the 11th of November 2020? Yes. Okay, so this record of conversation is now concluded.

At 6:49 p.m., with the house now relieved of federal investigators, Melissa Caddick called a law firm to make an appointment for 10 a.m. the following morning and paid the online deposit. Soon after, she sent an email to cancel a conflicting appointment with her physiotherapist. Later that evening, Anthony Coletti went to pick up food for the family. After dinner, they were in bed by 9:30 and lay awake for a few hours.

The husband and wife did not talk about the day's events. They were both, quote, too emotionally drained. Anthony said Melissa seemed to be in an emotionless state of shock. At midnight, he told her, I love you. Good night. Rolled over and fell asleep. When Anthony Coletti woke up the following day, Melissa Caddick was gone and nobody would ever see her again. Support for Swindled comes from Rocket Money.

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On November 12, 2020, Anthony Coletti assumed his 49-year-old wife, Melissa Caddick, had gone out for her daily morning exercise.

She had not taken her wallet. The dogs were still at home. Her car remained in the garage. Clearly, Melissa was on foot, Coletti thought to himself. There's no evidence of her getting ready for the day, so she's probably wearing the same clothes. That black gym shirt with black leggings and a pair of silver A6 running shoes, specially imported from Israel.

At 7:15 a.m., Anthony Colletti texted Melissa. "You okay? Have you got your key? It was almost time to take our son to school."

However, Anthony's stepson made a shocking discovery. "Mom has left her phone. It was charging in her closet." Melissa never leaves her phone, Anthony worried. He saw his unread text on the lock screen, along with a missed phone call from the lawyer's office, with the follow-up text received about 30 minutes after Melissa's scheduled appointment time, asking if she still planned to attend.

Anthony Coletti left a post-it note on the phone for when she returned. "Melissa," he wrote, "I know our love is deeper than possessions. Thought you may like one of your Christmas early. All my love." Underneath was a box of earrings. Anthony Coletti says he waited around the house all day and night for Melissa to come home. Later, however, detectives learned through an interview with Melissa's son that Anthony had actually gone looking for her on three different occasions.

Anthony thought his $300,000 blue convertible Audi R8 with the two-pause vanity plate would be easy for her to spot as he drove around blaring the music he'd written for her through his deluxe audio system. But Melissa was nowhere to be found. Anthony Colletti had also failed to mention that even though his wife had yet to come home, he went to a friend's house that evening to smoke a joint. And then he deleted the text messages organizing that meeting when investigators later asked to examine his phone.

Over the next few days, the inconsistencies in Anthony Colletti's timeline of events started to seem suspicious. In some versions, he last saw Melissa at midnight. In other versions, Colletti says his sleep apnea kept him awake or he had gone to the bathroom. Either way, Melissa was still in bed around 4:00 a.m., but she was gone when he woke up at 6:00 a.m. or was at 7:00 a.m. He said he heard the front door close around 5:30 or 6:00. Never mind, that was Melissa's son who had heard the noise.

Anthony Coletti had also told police that Melissa Caddick went for a walk every morning at 5:30. But a later review of the home's CCTV footage revealed that Melissa had not once left the house that early in the weeks leading up to her disappearance.

Melissa's friends said the 49-year-old financial advisor had a bum ankle and her workouts typically consisted of walking or jogging on the treadmill in her home. Unfortunately, investigators couldn't determine precisely when Melissa Caddick left that morning because the home security system was not recording because ASIC had seized its hard drive the night before.

Melissa Caddick had not returned home by the next morning, November 13th, 2020. Anthony knew his wife had her initial virtual hearing in federal court at 9.30 a.m. He used her phone to log in to see if she would show. Melissa Caddick is my wife, he announced. Is she not here? Nope. This was the moment, Anthony Coletti says, when he became extremely concerned. Missing an appointment, especially one as important as a court appearance, was completely out of character for Melissa Caddick.

She also had another meeting with her favorite jeweler later that evening. Anthony claimed she wouldn't have missed that one for the world.

After the hearing adjourned, Anthony Colletti called Amelia Griffin with the Australian Federal Police and then Isabella Allen at ASIC to tell them he hadn't seen or heard from Melissa in almost 30 hours. He was instructed to contact the local New South Wales Police, so he did, around 11:35 a.m., but Anthony told him he was too busy to come down to the station to make a report.

So, two police officers went to him. Anthony Colletti led them into the house and explained his version of events. Many of the details conflicted with what he had told the federal agents on the phone just minutes before. You could imagine we've worked very hard for what we have and both very honest and it's completely out of character for her but she's clearly taken it bad. I didn't see it the night before.

According to the police on the scene, Anthony Coletti was acting quote, extremely unusual and strange. So, a senior officer followed up with a second visit about 20 minutes later to get the story straight.

Hey, Anthony. Yes. G'day, I'm Sergeant Riley. I'm the one who spoke to you on the phone. Yeah, come on up. Yeah, no worries. Yeah, mate, I'm just a bit concerned. Can we go upstairs and have a chat? Yeah. Oh, mate, I'm just a bit worried about where your wife might be and I really need you to...

Like give me the full info about what's happened because I'm, like I said, I'm worried. I've got everything in here. Because you told me on the phone, your last story yesterday at 5.30 in the morning, but now you're telling my offside is here? No, it was Wednesday. It was 5.30 in the morning was when my boys saw her leave.

Right. Yes. And last night was when I saw her at 12 o'clock at night, I believe I said. Yeah. I'm just worried because you didn't tell me that on the phone. I asked her two or three times. Look, I'm shaken. I haven't slept for days. As you can see, I haven't eaten for three days. This is all I've been working on. If I can help you, I'm here. Right. So when did you last see her? 12 o'clock on... Last night? Yes, that's Wednesday night. Wednesday night? Yes. Okay.

So it's now Friday? So it wasn't 12 o'clock last night? No. Right. No. Okay. She's been gone 24 hours, over 24 hours now. Alright. If there's anything we can do for you, let me know. Look, I'm okay. Like, I'm fine. Like I said, if you can find her, that's the only thing you can do for me. Alright. Hopefully you can.

While Anthony Colletti's behavior was undoubtedly concerning, investigators found no evidence that he was involved in Melissa Caddick's disappearance. They don't think he murdered her. They don't think he helped her plan her getaway, even though it certainly seemed like Anthony had more information than he was sharing.

During that first weekend of Melissa's disappearance, police conducted searches of the reserves and clifftops around the Dover Heights home, as well as air and sea searches. They also talked to many of her, at this point, blissfully unaware clients to ascertain if any of them might have harmed her. The weekend ended with zero leads.

The following week, the police searched Melissa's home for clues, but she had left without a trace. There was no activity in her bank accounts or social media. The investigation's last resort was the home security and dash cam footage collected from the neighborhood, an extra 30 hours to sort through thanks to Anthony Colletti's delay in reporting Melissa missing.

Ultimately, all of that footage yielded no clues. Somehow, Melissa Caddick walked out of her house and through the neighborhood completely undetected. A coincidence or a well-planned escape route? One week after Melissa's disappearance, November 19th, 2020, Anthony Colletti and Melissa's brother Adam Grimley appeared alongside New South Wales Police Detective Inspector Gretchen Atkins to make a public appeal for Melissa's return.

Alright, thank you everybody for coming. As you no doubt know, this is an appeal for Melissa Caddick. Melissa was last seen on Thursday just after midnight at her home. She hasn't been seen since. She's 49 years old, about 165 centimetres tall, was last seen wearing her active running wear, Nike leggings.

single at top. We had some serious concerns for her safety. She did not take any of her personal belongings, no phone, no wallet, keys, nothing. Anthony Colletti spoke next. He begged the communities of Australia to come together to find his wife Melissa Caddick, who he promised was not in trouble. Melissa is a dedicated and incredible mother. A beautiful daughter, sister and loved wife.

We are asking the community to help bring Melissa home. That is all. That's all. This is out of character. We just need the communities of Australia to come together to help bring her home. Like I said, we just need the communities of Australia to help come together. You all, a lot of you know who she is. A lot of you know who she is.

who she is as a person. Or like I said, all we need is our community to come together to help bring her home. Yes. You know how much we love you. Just come home. Everything's taken care of. You're not in trouble. Next up, Melissa's brother, Adam Grimley, who read a prepared statement. I'd like to read a statement. Melissa.

Please let us know that you're safe and sound. We love you. To our communities, we need your help to bring Melissa, my little sister, home. Thank you. This public appeal resulted in numerous sightings of the missing 49-year-old mother. Unfortunately, none of them checked out. The only sign of Melissa Caddick's existence was the wreckage she'd left behind. At this point, it was becoming public knowledge that the missing woman had just been raided by ASIC for alleged financial fraud.

Caddick was reportedly operating as a financial advisor without a license. Worst of all, she had apparently misappropriated up to $30 million Australian dollars. $30 million from 72 investors over 8 years. Only $8.5 million had been repaid or refunded over the years, meaning the other $23 million was missing. Melissa Caddick's scheme was simple in its unoriginality, but so clean and organized

Clients handed over their life savings for Melissa to invest in low-risk stocks and bonds. Instead, she would deposit the funds into her bank account and create fake trading accounts with fake account numbers, fake statements, and fake profits, an entire charade that convinced the client they were being taken care of.

The reports were always on time and almost indistinguishable from the authentic ones she used as inspiration. Melissa's reports always showed a dazzling return, up to 30% sometimes, that helped ensure the client wouldn't pull their money out in a panic.

When Melissa Caddick needed her client's accounts audited, she made sure to use the same auditor that she used for her business so everything would tie. While she needed a signature from a justice of the peace, she would simply forge the name of her father-in-law, Roto Colletti, an actual JP without his knowledge.

When Melissa wanted a new necklace, she simply helped herself with her client's funds. No need to worry. There would always be new influxes of money. These kinds of schemes always work out in the end.

She was meticulous and systematic about it. Bruce Gleeson, the court-appointed receiver responsible for forensically reconstructing Melissa Caddick's financial affairs, said she used Excel spreadsheets instead of accounting software to generate the fake documentation. There's little doubt Excel was the tool of trade used to generate the fictitious investor statements and other financial records.

Bruce Gleason said his team identified multiple instances where Melissa Caddick was recording investor funds as company revenue when clearly this was not the correct accounting treatment. Perhaps Melissa had learned a few tricks of the trade from John Pearson, who, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, was Melissa Caddick's personal and company accountant for two years.

John Pearson and his son had previously served a five-year sentence for stealing almost $3 million from clients. He was the first person in Australia to be prosecuted by ASIC concerning misusing self-managed superannuation funds. Quite the honor, if you ask me.

And speaking of honors, it was an absolute privilege if Melissa Caddick took you on as a client. It was an exclusive club. According to Melissa, she only managed 15 accounts at a time. It's tough to get in, but lucky there, lucky you. A spot just opened up.

Sure, Melissa Katak could expand her business easily since she performs at such a high level, but she wasn't really into financial advising for the money. Remember, she had already made her fortune. That's what she told her clients. She was doing this as a favor to friends and family, and to empower women, of course.

Melissa Katica would convince her clients to opt in to the self-managed superannuation fund program, and then she'd immediately start transferring funds in and out, making it difficult to trace. To her credit, Melissa did invest a portion of the funds as promised. She accumulated a $1.2 million loss on her trades.

Melissa Caddick was far better at just spending the money like it was her own. In addition to hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars in jewelry and clothes, Melissa purchased a $2.5 million apartment in Edgecliff. She and her family took 25 overseas vacations. According to her American Express credit card statements, Melissa Caddick was spending more than $600,000 a year.

Melissa Caddick's life was more luxurious than she could ever dreamed. But, in true con artist fashion, she couldn't help but lie about having more. In a will she had drawn up in August 2019, Melissa included an Aspen apartment that she did not own. She had also claimed she had millions of dollars worth of rare Argyle diamonds in her possession, but there is no evidence that those existed either.

Unsurprisingly, it was also determined that even Melissa Caddick's resume was entirely fabricated. It was almost unbelievable at this point. At every corner, a new betrayal. The devastation that's been caused in their lives can't be underestimated. In the months following Melissa Caddick's disappearance, her clients began to learn the horrifying truth.

Many of them discovered that they were victims through the media. Specifically, investigative journalist Kate McCliman's December 4th, 2020 article in the Sydney Morning Herald titled "Con Artist of the Century." The journalist later explained that up until that point, most investors believed there was an issue with a single disgruntled client. McCliman's article revealed that Caddick's operation was a Ponzi scheme and that everybody who had invested with her was almost certainly affected.

Many clients called ComSec, the financial services company where Melissa held their investments, to discover that their accounts never existed.

Melissa Caddick had ripped off lawyers, doctors, a personal trainer, lifelong friends of her parents, her oldest childhood friends, in some cases multiple generations of the same family, including her own family. Melissa Caddick's cousin Joe and his partner Sarah Steele invested their life savings with the trusted family member

If that name Sarah Steele sounds familiar to longtime Swindled listeners, you may remember the promo for her terrific podcast about cults called Let's Talk About Sex from an earlier episode. Sarah has also written a book about cults called Do As I Say, which you can buy wherever books are sold. Consider purchasing because Sarah and Joe's life savings have vanished courtesy of Melissa Caddick.

Not even Melissa's own brother was spared. Adam Grimley reportedly gave Melissa $2 million just days before her disappearance.

Even her parents fell prey. Barb and Ted Grimley sold their home and gave $1 million to Melissa to help purchase a three-bedroom luxury apartment in the eastern suburbs of Sydney. Their agreement was that Melissa would own the property, but her parents would live their remaining lives there rent-free. Melissa Caddick did buy that apartment, but used her parents' contribution to pay for private jet flights and a $590,000 ring. This is New South Wales Police Commissioner Mick Fuller.

Look, I'd say to her is that she's not the first person to have alleged to engage in fraudulent activity. The reality is that the assets gained and used by her have all been locked down by government agencies. And I think for her and her family, it would be time to come home. Melissa Caddick had been missing for almost 100 days now. Nobody had a clue what happened there. Not a single lead. Until late February 2021.

when a silver A6 running shoe containing a decomposed human foot washed up on Bourne the beach. I can now inform you that last Sunday, Sunday the 21st of February, a shoe was located on the shoreline of the Bordana National Park south of Tartara by campers. Within that shoe were the remains of a human foot.

That foot and the shoe which matched the size and description of a shoe that Melissa Caddick was seen wearing during the execution of the ASIC search warrant were conveyed to the New South Wales Health Forensic and Science Services section here in Sydney where DNA from the foot was last night matched to DNA, a DNA sample from Melissa Caddick's toothbrush and from family members. Melissa's family were informed of the identification last night and are obviously distressed.

On Sunday, February 21st, 2021, around noon, three teenage boys who spent the weekend surfing and camping on the south coast of New South Wales stumbled across a shoe on Bourne the Beach. These upstanding citizens retrieved the shoe to dispose of it in a nearby garbage bin, only to discover that it was full of bones.

At the time, we were all in a bit of shock. We obviously didn't think it was real at first. One of the boys told 7 News, "We were wondering whether someone had played a prank, put some chicken bones in the shoe or something." The surfers called the police, "And the weird thing is," the boy continued, "while we were sitting there waiting for the cops, a few seagulls came and tried to take the shoe away."

Thankfully, those boys were able to successfully defend their find long enough to hand it off to authorities. Nobody was injured, except for, you know, whoever that shoe belonged to. The shoe police noted was women's style, right-footed, A6 brand, silver, possibly the type that could only be imported from Israel, and it was covered in goose barnacles, suggesting it must have been floating on the water's surface for a while.

possibly for 100 days or more. That's how long it had been since Melissa Caddick went missing from Dover Heights in Sydney, almost 500 kilometers away. It was the exact same shoe that could be seen in the body count footage of the raid. Police could confirm their suspicions using DNA extracted from Melissa's toothbrush, but it would take about a week to get the results.

Oddly enough, additional human remains were found on a different beach later that week. A large piece of torso, belly button included, was found in the sand at Malibuk, about 150 kilometers away. Around the same time, two bones washed up on Tura Beach, and human intestines were found at Kunjarong Point.

it was determined that none of those body parts belonged to Melissa Caddick. However, on February 26, 2021, New South Wales Assistant Police Commissioner Mick Willing announced at a press conference that the DNA taken from the silver ASIC shoe found at Bournda Beach was confirmed to have belonged to the missing fraudster. Now as you're aware, there's been a lot of commentary and a lot of speculation in relation to the disappearance of Melissa Caddick and that's understandable.

Clearly the circumstances of Melissa's disappearance have been distressing for many people, including her alleged victims and of course her family and friends. I can say that exactly how Melissa came to enter the water is still a mystery and will be subject of ongoing investigations by the Strikeforce team.

The investigation was ongoing. Just because Melissa Caddick was missing at least one foot, that didn't necessarily mean that she was dead.

In fact, after the remains were found, Asick issued a warrant for her arrest, charging her with 38 fraud-related offenses for swindling 72 clients out of $23 million. However, those criminal charges against Melissa Caddick were dropped a month later so that the civil case against her could proceed, paving the way for her assets to be sold for a faster recovery for the victims.

Naturally, Melissa Caddick's severed foot ignited a wide range of theories among the public about what it meant. Some were convinced that Melissa staged her disappearance, chopped off her own foot as a red herring and was hopping around in a different country somewhere, digging up bars of gold she had stashed. Others believed she had been murdered, a small disposable player who knew too much on a larger nefarious scheme.

The most widely accepted theory was that Melissa Caddick knew the jig was up and couldn't bear the shame. So, she took a 350-foot plunge off the cliffs of Dover, just blocks from her house. She was probably killed the instant her body landed on the jagged rocks below. Melissa's corpse then probably washed out to sea, where it rotted away for months in the sun and water, or was feasted upon by sharks and other monsters of the deep.

The only remnants of the heartless financial advisor were protected from the elements by a lonesome hardy running shoe. Suppose anyone at Asics is listening. Call me. I have an excellent idea for a commercial. Anthony Colletti wasn't buying it. Why would his wife take such extreme measures when she had done nothing wrong? Anthony had his own theory, which he shared on 7 News' Spotlight program, his first public appearance in almost a year.

Anthony Colletti also appeared on 7 News' morning show, where he used a poor choice of words to accuse the corporate watchdog of preventing Melissa from defending herself, quote,

Asick took all the files, all the receipts, everything like that. So really, I feel like she had no foot to stand on. Soon, Anthony Colletti took his accusations a step further, claiming Asick treated his wife inhumanely during the raid, interrogating her like a terrorist, depriving her of food and water, all of which, according to Anthony Colletti, led directly to her death. Melissa Caddick's parents and her brother agreed.

I don't see myself as a victim of Melissa Caddick. I see myself as a survivor of ASIF. Even if Melissa was as guilty as hell, she didn't deserve to die. Whether she committed suicide, whether she was murdered, she died because of their raid.

Anthony Colletti's father, Rodo Colletti, the justice of the piece whose signature was routinely forged by Melissa, did not subscribe to Anthony's theories. Appearing on 60 Minutes, Rodo Colletti described Anthony as delusional for believing that Melissa Caddick was innocent.

That said, Rhoda was convinced that his son Anthony had not been involved in any way. "Anthony is a hairdresser, a damn good hairdresser, but I don't believe he has the capacity to know what a financial scheme is." Even this public criticism by his father could not deter Anthony Colletti.

His attacks on Asick intensified. He started posting his wild accusations on LinkedIn, one of which read, quote, An investigator at your company and her team of white-collar crooks caused the death of my wife. Put an end to preemptive slaughter. On the one-year anniversary of Melissa's disappearance, Anthony attached a sign to the front door of Asick's offices in Sydney. Asick equals woman slaughter, it read. A true work of art.

But little did everybody know that behind closed doors, Anthony Coletti was working on his true magnum opus, an entire album about the ordeal called Raid by DJ Paws Off. A pair of silver Asics are featured on the album cover. It can only be described as part spoken word, part hip hop, part dance music, part one-man Broadway show of diss tracks. It's amazing. Here are some of my favorite moments.

If you think that the raid that happened on November 11, 2020 affected nobody, you are wrong. It affected many. You should turn your body cam off so we don't get in trouble. You don't need to be here, Mr. Colletti. Just leave and we'll turn your wife's head into spaghetti.

I'm not going anywhere. Not leaving you alone. Who are you, a judge? I'm not gonna budge. Privacy zero. Have a laugh before you go. Privacy zero. Have a laugh before you go. My wife died as a direct result of an ASIC investigation. Corporate watchdog. Oh, he's just doing my job.

Doing my job. Corporate Watchdog. I've had a couple of deaths in the family this year. You might get me a snake or a rat and call it Isabella. I'll buy the ugliest thing I can find. The ugliest thing I can find. A one-sided story told by one large corporation spending millions. Now I'll never know if you walked out on your own accord.

Most of that heat was reserved for ASIC project manager Isabella Allen, the lead investigator in the Melissa Caddick case. In the minds of Anthony Colletti and Melissa's family, Isabella Allen was public enemy number one.

But the dude had more in the tank. DJ Paws Off dropped a follow-up single a few months later. The song was called Liar Liars, and it was directed at Sydney Morning Herald journalist Kate McClimont and 60 Minutes reporter Tom Steinfurt, who together had recently launched a podcast about the Melissa Caddick case called Liar Liar.

Anthony Colletti took exception. Take a look at your reflection. Too late. The glass breaks. You're all a bunch of fakes. Your podcast soothes you. Liar Liar's the name. You should check it out. It's full of false speculation. I've never even been to Paris. You're lying to the nation. Check your facts. If you can't handle the truth, you and your amateur sleuths, take me to Judge Judy. Sue me. I have zero bucks to give.

In February 2022, Anthony Coletti was slapped with an apprehended violence order, basically a restraining order to stop making songs about ASIC investigator Isabella Allen. Coletti accused the agency of filing the order in an attempt to quote, defame my character. He had no intention of hurting anybody, he told The Australian. He just wanted to get the truth out.

As did the state. A coroner's inquest was announced with New South Wales Deputy State Coroner Elizabeth Ryan at the helm. The inquiry would ultimately span four intermittent sessions beginning in September 2022 and ending in February 2023.

The coroner's inquest aimed to examine the circumstances surrounding Melissa Caddick's suspected death to answer the question of whether she was actually deceased and if so, to establish the time, place, cause, and manner. It would also ask if the police investigation was adequate and did ASIC act appropriately. The witness list included her husband, Anthony Colletti, police psychologist and ASIC investigator Isabella Allen,

Finally, some questions would be answered. Until then, the battle over Melissa Caddick's quote assets was still underway. In April 2022, Anthony Colletti made an absurd claim that included $7 million in shares, $2 million worth of jewelry, the house and the apartment valued at a combined $20 million, some clothes, some artwork, and the proceeds from the sale of his beloved Audi R8.

Anthony Colletti claimed he was entitled to those items because he contributed to their purchase. He claimed this after he had already sworn to the court that he was destitute without her. Shortly after Melissa Caddick disappeared, Anthony submitted proof that he had $1.95 in his bank account. He said he quit his job as a hairdresser in 2020 because of COVID. He said she paid for all the expenses from then on, and he took care of the household chores and sold prawns from his aquarium.

According to Anthony Coletti's bank statements, he was receiving thousands of dollars in cash from Melissa on a regular basis. He claimed he was completely dependent on her and couldn't find a job now because of his recent notoriety. "I am treated as an outcast by most people," he wrote. "I have been described as an arsehole, a creep, a fuckwit, a toyboy, a handbag, and even stupid by my father."

Anthony Colletti asked the court for $1,700 weekly. But now he was telling a different story. Melissa never gave me a cent. As I've told you before, I always paid for myself. Anthony Colletti's fantasy budget early on included $40,000 a year for Melissa's 16-year-old son's private schooling. Melissa Caddick's 2019 will named Anthony as her son's primary caregiver. The boy's biological father disputed this. Tony Caddick

wrote to the court, quote, And he said he doubted, quote, because, quote,

In May 2022, the court ordered Anthony Colletti to vacate the Dover Heights mansion so it could be sold. In June 2022, he had a change of heart and vacated most of his property claims, saying he just wanted to move on with his life. Anthony Colletti replaced the Audi R8 with a more practical automobile after it was seized, but soon his primary mode of transportation was Uber or whatever.

whatever Australian equivalent exists. Unfortunately for Anthony, his new car had been destroyed by a garbage truck while it was parked on the street. His next car was recently trashed by a garbage truck.

Anthony Coletti might have relented, but Melissa's 80-year-old parents never did. Barb and Ted Grimley submitted a claim on the Edgecliff apartment for which they were promised lifelong free rent. The couple claimed that if the property was sold, they should be reimbursed for the million dollars they contributed to the purchase. However, other caddock victims opposed that idea since Barb and Ted's contribution was misappropriated along with their funds and they should get in line with everyone else.

That dispute would have to be settled after the coroner's inquest, which began in September 2022. Anthony Coletti took the stand for four days during that first session. He contradicted many of his previous claims about being abused during the ASIC raid. During cross-examination, Anthony Coletti was asked point-blank if he delayed reporting Melissa missing to allow her time to escape. No, he replied.

By the end of his fourth day of questioning, Anthony Colletti accepted that his wife was a crook, but still held Asick responsible for her death due to their quote, cruelty. I am extremely upset at what I have learned, Colletti said on the stand. I feel terrible about what has happened to Melissa's family, her friends, their relatives, and the investors.

A deputy state coroner, Elizabeth Ryan's final report, which was presented in May 2023, she wrote...

Mr. Colletti's unusual demeanor, when combined with the delay in his report to police and the significant discrepancies in his accounts as to which he has been unable to provide any acceptable explanation, give rise to the strong suspicion that during the period 11-13 November 2020, he was in possession of information about his wife's disappearance but withheld it from the investigating police.

Put simply, the discrepancies are too numerous and too persistent in nature to be attributable to stress and a lack of intellectual sophistication. I have concluded that during the period 11 to 13 November 2020, he had some awareness of Miskadik's movements over the previous two days, but he chose not to disclose it. The inescapable conclusion I have reached is that throughout the investigation and the inquest,

Anthony Colletti has never been charged with a crime in relation to Melissa Caddick's disappearance or financial scheme, and neither has anyone else. Melissa Caddick was almost assuredly dead, though, the deputy coroner concluded.

She had threatened suicide in the past when she was at her wits end, telling her brother, "If it all gets too much for me, you'll find me at the Gap." A forensic psychologist told the court that Melissa Caddick likely had a narcissistic personality disorder and the crumbling of her empire could have caused a "severe narcissistic injury," causing her a catastrophic level of shame and despair, which could very likely have led to suicide.

Unfortunately, according to a forensic pathologist, with such limited remains available for examination, it was not possible to determine the cause or manner of death. I have concluded that Melissa Caddick is deceased. However, a more problematical issue is whether the evidence is sufficient to enable a positive finding as to how she died and when and where this happened.

Melissa Caddick's crimes have left her victims with a quote, "...profound sense of betrayal," said Deputy Coroner Elizabeth Ryan. For many, their losses represented all the money they had saved for their retirement or for their children's education.

The financial and emotional harm they have suffered will reverberate for many years to come. The Sydney home and assets of fraudster Melissa Caddick have been sold. The Dover Heights property was sold for $9.8 million earlier this month. Melissa Caddick's Dover Heights home was sold for $9.8 million during the inquest.

When the new owner moved in, a bag of red chilies was tied to the front door, an ancient Chinese tradition to ward off evil spirits. Melissa's jewelry, clothing, and art fetched another $860,000 at auction in December 2022. $361,000 was recouped from the sale of both cars.

and the Australian Tax Office announced they would return $1 million in taxes the victims paid on profits that never existed. The recuperation effort was making progress.

However, the recuperation effort was slowed down by Melissa Caddick's parents, who were still fighting for the $2.5 million apartment in Edgecliff.

They wanted to stay and use the proceeds from the sale of Melissa's house to pay off the mortgage.

But, they said they would settle for a reimbursement of their million dollars to vacate the property instead of splitting the greater pool of funds with the other victims. Dozens of investors ripped off by Melissa Caddick have united as one fighting to stop proceeds from the sale of her Dover Heights home from going to her elderly parents. Ted and Barbara Grimley want the mortgage for their Edgecliff apartment paid off with their daughter's stolen money.

$2 million in legal fees had already been paid out of the recovered funds because of this standoff, and every day it continued to drain a little bit more from the pot. Finally, the victims gave in and agreed to pay the Grimleys $950,000 to fuck off, with hopes to recover the funds when the unit is sold at auction next spring.

Even still, the recovery continues. In August 2023, receivers in the Melissa Caddick case said they planned to inspect her 17-year-old son's sneaker collection. Seems petty, but these are no ordinary sneakers. One particular pair of Christian Dior's is reportedly worth $12,000. And to date, Melissa Caddick's victims have recovered about 13 cents for every dollar lost.

So far, $3 million has been distributed. Hopefully, there's more to come. Every penny counts. Swindled is written, researched, produced, and hosted by me, a concerned citizen, with original music by Trevor Howard, a.k.a. Deformer, a.k.a. Boomalicious. For more information about Swindled, you can visit swindledpodcast.com and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and TikTok at swindledpodcast.

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My name is Megan from Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Hi, my name is Michael from Philly. Hi, my name is Gabrielle from Lakeville, Minnesota. And I am a concerned non-citizen anarchist and a valued listener. God, I'm so fucking happy you guys did the story on the Brooklyn Center dude who burned his garage down fighting a venti. What a fucking tool. Anyway, keep up the good work. Love you guys.

Thanks to SimpliSafe for sponsoring the show. Protect your home this summer with 20% off any new SimpliSafe system when you sign up for Fast Protect Monitoring. Just visit simplisafe.com slash swindled. That's simplisafe.com slash swindled. There's no safe like SimpliSafe.