By Kate McClymont April 25, 2022 https://www.smh.com.au/national/par...-caddick-s-web-of-deceit-20220424-p5afpl.html When fraudster Melissa Caddick went missing in November 2020 police were informed that one person they should look into was her first husband Anthony Byron Caddick. As well as being a serial con artist, Melissa Caddick was also a serial liar, and one of those innocent people whose life she tried to destroy to cover her wrongdoing was her first husband. At the time she disappeared, Melissa Caddick, 49, was at the centre of a major investigation by the corporate regulator ASIC over millions of dollars she had embezzled from her clients who thought she had invested their money in shares. Her second husband Anthony Koletti took 30 hours to inform the police that his wife had vanished – leaving behind her phone, wallet and keys – only hours after her Dover Heights mansion had been raided. When she vanished, none of her family or friends knew she’d been running a major Ponzi scheme, let alone that some of them were victims of her $23 million fraud. Neither of her husbands was aware of her fraud or had any involvement in her disappearance. Melissa Caddick with her first husband Tony Caddick. But that didn’t stop people from informing the police about her poisonous relationship with her ex-husband. In early 2012, having moved to the UK with her English-born husband Tony Caddick, Melissa was caught out having a secret liaison in Paris with the man who was to become her second husband, her hairdresser Koletti. When confronted about her affair, Caddick cleaned out their joint bank account and returned immediately to Sydney with their young son, several friends and relatives have told the podcast Liar Liar: Melissa Caddick and the Missing Millions. Anthony Koletti and Melissa Caddick chatting with guests on their wedding day on New Year’s Eve, 2013. She then set about systematically destroying her husband, attributing her own character traits to him. Melissa Caddick maintained her ex-husband was a controlling narcissist and a con artist, who had been caught cheating on her. Her friend Kate Horn told the podcast, Melissa tried to “poison everyone’s minds against Tony by saying how terrible he was and abusive and threatening.” She has since learned none of those things was true, Horn said. A relative revealed that Melissa’s lied to her extended family, saying she had “escaped” from the UK “because Tony was abusing her”. Melissa Caddick on the cover of IFA magazine. Not long after Caddick arrived back in Sydney in 2012, her friend Kate Horn became her first victim. Caddick soon ensnared a number of others. Instead of investing their money, Caddick used their funds to rent a five-bedroom prestige property in Rose Bay. She later acquired her own house and an apartment for her parents. The stolen funds were also splashed out on couture clothes and jewellery worth millions of dollars. She bought her second husband a $390,000 sports car and took him on lavish holidays. A decade earlier, Melissa Caddick had been featured on the cover of the trade magazine IFA (Independent Financial Adviser.) Resplendent in her famous red jacket with bright red lipstick to match, the headline read: “A Wise Choice: Australia’s best planning practice.” But within a year, Caddick had fallen out with Wise Financial over numerous issues including their refusal to let her offer share-trading advice to her clients. She later manufactured a series of lies about her 2004 departure from Wise to explain how a simple financial adviser with only a handful of chosen clients could be living such a breathtakingly extravagant lifestyle. Caddick told Cheryl Kraft Reid she’d made $86 million from a superannuation program she had developed while at Wise Financial and then sold to the big industry funds. Another person was told Melissa had received a massive payout after suing her former partners at Wise for sexual harassment. This was also untrue. Someone else was shocked when Melissa boasted that she’d become rich by ripping off the elderly owner of Wise, snatching the business from him for a song. However, Caddick’s employee, who was also a victim, might have been able to catch Melissa out as she had worked with her at Wise. Caddick told her she’d made a fortune from Bitcoin. Interestingly, while she was still at Wise, Caddick had spelled out how to catch someone just like her. In 2004 Caddick set out her eight “golden rules” for finding the right financial adviser. “Like any profession, financial planning has unscrupulous operators,” she said. She also warned that “unfortunately, some people pass themselves off as financial advisers, when in fact, they are no such thing”. She later committed every one of the things she warned an unscrupulous adviser might do. She was unlicensed, she falsified fees, faked her qualifications and her company had no accreditation. By then it was too late. Her partial remains washed up in her running shoe in February 2021. An inquest into Caddick’s presumed death has been set down for hearing in September.
How sad so many people invest without due diligence to confirm if a financial advisor is licensed. It happens so often it's like an old Twilight Zone episode.
Yeah she is still alive. If she's dead, they should be able to find more of her remains, not just one foot. So instead of looking out for a one-arm man, now we need to look out for a one-foot woman. LOL
Liar Liar How a puppy picture revealed Melissa Caddick’s stunning $46,000 per day ‘profit’ By Kate McClymont May 2, 2022 https://www.smh.com.au/national/how...ng-46-000-per-day-profit-20220429-p5ahbm.html Only six months before she disappeared, accused fraudster Melissa Caddick sent a cute photo of her cocker spaniel Peter Pan resting on her arm in her home office. It wasn’t until after Caddick vanished that the recipient, one of her many victims, zoomed in on the photo looking for clues. What she discovered has left her reeling. A close inspection of the photo reveals that Caddick had made a note to herself recording her average profit – or theft – for the month of May 2020 had reached an extraordinary $46,000 a day, the podcast Liar Liar: Melissa Caddick and the Missing Millions reveals. The staggering daily profit represents a total of $1.426 million just for the month of May 2020. Forensic investigators from the corporate regulator the Australian Securities and Investments Commission have calculated that the year leading up to her disappearance was the fraudster’s most profitable, earning her $7.8 million. Melissa Caddick and her dogs, and (inset) Melissa Caddick’s dog Peter Pan seated at the fraudster’s desk in front of paperwork saying she was making a $46,000 per day profit. On November 11, 2020, the federal police, on behalf of ASIC, executed search warrants at Caddick’s Dover Heights house in relation to the major Ponzi scheme she was running. Her investors – mainly family and friends – thought they were investing in shares. Instead, Caddick used their $23 million in funds to live a breathtakingly extravagant lifestyle. In the early hours of the following morning, she disappeared. In February 2021, her partial remains inside her running shoe washed up on a remote South Coast beach. An inquest into her presumed death will be held in September. In late 2012, Caddick’s oldest friend, Kate Horn, became her first victim. Her extended family later lost almost $10 million. In 2013, Caddick ratcheted up her criminal endeavours by setting up a fake financial services company Maliver. She simply cut and pasted a friend’s financial services guide and inserted her own name. She also passed off her friend’s financial services licence as her own. Caddick knew she would never get the licence, which is regulated by ASIC, as extensive documentation is required to prove that the person has the requisite training and qualifications. Anthony Koletti and Melissa Caddick chatting with guests on their wedding day on New Year’s Eve, 2013. She had previously falsified her qualifications claiming she had undergraduate and post-graduate degrees from the University of Technology, Sydney. The university confirmed she had no such degrees. Within two months of establishing Maliver, she issued a fictitious client with a $1.4 million tax invoice for providing “business consulting services”. Because her tax returns on the $23 million she stole were works of fiction, Bruce Gleeson, the liquidator of her assets, is seeking refunds from the Australian Tax Office for the taxes she paid on the proceeds of her crime. The podcast reveals that one of those who did not trust Caddick was her father-in-law, Rodo Koletti, an accountant and a justice of the peace. He said that whenever the conversation turned to financial matters, “she became too evasive and didn’t answer questions, and went off on a tangent with things that really didn’t make sense”. Koletti said he was left “just not trusting her”. He was right not to trust her. Whenever Caddick needed a JP to witness legal documents, she simply forged her father-in-law’s signature. This week will be a hectic one for her family. On Tuesday, her parents Barb and Ted Grimley and her husband Anthony Koletti will be in the Federal Court arguing with the liquidator over Caddick’s assets. Her husband is claiming a slice of his wife’s $30 million proceeds of crime, including her Gucci wedding dress, $7 million in shares, $2 million worth of jewellery, two properties he claims are valued at $20 million and the proceeds from the sale of their luxury cars. On Wednesday, Anthony Koletti, a hairdresser, will be in the Local Court contesting an apprehended violence order being sought against him by the police on behalf of ASIC’s lead investigator, Isabella Allen. In February, Koletti sent an email to the Federal Court judge responsible for deciding what happens to his wife’s assets. “The reason Melissa is deceased and you don’t have a defendant is because of Isabella Allen’s severe negligence and inhumane treatment towards Melissa, Whether Melissa committed suicide or was murdered [sic],” Koletti wrote.
People like her do not merely vanish only to kill themselves. You folks in Australia seem to have pretty lame forensic experts.