The most audacious plan of Queensland’s worst ever conman has finally been revealed – and it involved swindling an entire town.

Alan Metcalfe convinced hundreds of Australians he had found the secret code to artificial intelligence in the Bible and convinced hundreds of Australians to invest in a baffling saga now being exposed in a news.com.au investigative podcast, The Missing $49 Million.

And Geraldton, an ocean town in Western Australia, with a population of just 40,000 people, about a five-hour drive from Perth, turned out to be an absolute Garden of Eden for the scammer.

Alan defrauded around 450 people with connections to, or who lived in, Geraldton and the surrounding area.

Those victims cumulatively invested $15 million into the scheme – money that they will never see again.

One man even put in $1.5 million of his family’s fortune but even now refuses to accept it was all one big con.

Alan was constantly jetting in and out of Geraldton, donning suits even in the 43 degree heat, hiring out conference centres, putting out sandwiches, wooing those in the town.

But what was it about this place that had the Queensland fraudster so enamoured – and so sure he could take their money?

News.com.au has launched The Missing $49 Million, our first ever multi-part investigative podcast series.

When Metcalfe died in 2017, investors were left asking what happened to their money. All $49 million of it.

Lots of money has gone missing, no one seems to know where it is and I’m setting out to find it.

I’ve already unmasked Alan Metcalfe’s life of fraud, dating back to when he was in his early 20s – and spoken to a whistleblower who worked at the AI tech company and believed it was all a scam.

The money trail will lead me to notorious tax havens, had me trying to track down a so-called Irish billionaire and raises questions about whether Metcalfe himself is really dead. It will take me from Australia’s richest woman to American megachurches, all the way to ex US President Donald Trump.

The first four episodes of The Missing $49 Million are available to listen to now wherever you get your podcasts. An episode is coming out every week for this eight-part series.

Available on Spotify here.

Available on Apple Podcasts here.

Do you know more? Get in touch | alex.turner-cohen@news.com.au

Geraldton’s local state politician had to rebuff Metcalfe when the accused fraudster tried to convince him to give him $1 million in government funds.

Ian Blayney, the local member for the Geraldton electorate for 13 years until 2021, said he met Alan Metcalfe early on his term.

A new grant program had opened up, called Royalties for Regions, and Alan was pitching his AI business as the best recipient of the funds.

He wanted to turn Geraldton into a virtual village, a kind of Silicon Valley of Australia, and provide everyone in the town with a computer to trial it out.

“He was very strong that Geraldton was the right place at the right time for it,” Ian recalled. “I don’t know why he settled on Geraldton, but there must have been a reason.”

As for Alan’s proposal, the politician didn’t want anything to do with it.

“I just thought, no, this is shonky. I thought he, and his idea were crackers,” he said.

While Alan didn’t get the grant, he continued to circle Geraldton, a serpent looking for prey. And he found it.

Chris Litsch was working as a nurse at a mine site at Karara, a short trip away from Geraldton, when he heard about the AI business. The Litsch family ended up putting $20,000 into the scheme.

“We had just signed up for a second mortgage and I thought this might just help us clear that, you know?”

Warren Barndon, a farmer who has lived in Geraldton his whole life, poured $20,000 into the scheme. His dad put even more in.

A little later on, though, doubts slithered into Warren’s mind.

“I sort of was wondering myself why he would come all the way from Queensland to try and raise money in Western Australia if it was so good. He should have been able to raise enough money over in Queensland.

A distant cousin’s of Warren’s, Phil Barndon, also got scammed. He invested $50,000 – something he said has been a “bone of contention” with his wife ever since.

“Most people they approached were farmers or average workers like me,” Phil said.

Many farmers got conned by the scheme, one of Geraldton’s biggest industries.

Another Geraldton victim, who wanted to remain anonymous, said “Alan took advantage of what was happening in WA. The reason he targeted a lot of farmers was the resources boom. It was all a big con”.

And by far the biggest farmer scammed was Geraldton born-and-bred Rod McCagh.

Rod, 73, sold his family’s wheat and sheep farm to invest $1.5 million into Alan’s AI business.

Rod was the reason for the fraudster’s interest in his town. He was a devoted disciple of Alan Metcalfe, after he happened to be sitting on a plane and was persuaded to stake his fortune on the investment opportunity.

Not only was Rod the biggest victim, he also spruiked the scheme to 450 other people, raising a total of $15 million.

Both the Barndon cousins became involved because of Rod.

“He’s a very honest person, and I heard he put up quite a bit of money into it,” Warren recalled. “And so you work on trust.”

So that was why Geraldton had such a big target on its back; Alan had cultivated a true believer to his cause.

That was the key to his success – having a man of the people by his side, who could proselytise on his behalf. That man for Alan was Rod McCagh.

The first four episodes of The Missing $49 Million are available to listen to now wherever you get your podcasts. An episode is coming out every week for this eight-part series.

Available on Spotify here.

Available on Apple Podcasts here.

alex.turner-cohen@news.com.au