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Melissa Caddick’s parents may lose Edgecliff home purchased in her name

Investors who were ripped off by fraudster Melissa Caddick shouldn’t be able to get their hands on what assets she has left until a coroner decides if she is dead or alive, the Federal Court was told on Wednesday.

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Investors who were ripped off by fraudster Melissa Caddick shouldn’t be able to get their hands on what assets she has left until a coroner decides if she is dead or alive, the Federal Court was told yesterday.

It would be a reprieve for her devastated parents who are fighting to stay in the Edgecliff penthouse which they claim to have put $1 million of their own money towards although it was bought by Caddick solely in her name and stands to be sold off to pay back investors.

Edward and Barbara Grimley believe they have a 37 per cent interest in the luxury penthouse along with the right to live there as long as they want, it was revealed in court.

Missing businesswoman Melissa Caddick. Picture: Andy Baker
Missing businesswoman Melissa Caddick. Picture: Andy Baker

The corporate regulator ASIC wants receivers and liquidators appointed to Caddick’s estate and her company Maliver as soon as possible to claw back between $6 million and $16 million left for the 72 investors who handed over almost $30.2 million to the woman they thought was a trusted financial Adviser.

But Nichols Bender, the barrister appointed by the court as “contradictor”, to argue the other side, threw a spanner in the works on Wednesday when he argued that the court could not make any decisions because it is still not known whether Caddick is still alive.

He said that when the Australian Securities and Investments Commission raided her Dover Heights home on November 11, they did not serve any documents seeking to seize her assets. That was done until five months later.

Melissa Caddick’s parents Barbara and Ted Grimley.
Melissa Caddick’s parents Barbara and Ted Grimley.

Caddick, 49, disappeared the next morning and her foot was found in February on a south coast beach.

Mr Bender said the court could not give the power to anyone to sell her Edgecliff property or her Dover Heights home or other assets until an inquest was held. No date has yet been set for an inquest.

Counsel for ASIC, Farid Assaf SC, said that the evidence was that “on the balance of probabilities” that she was dead but the cause and date of her death had not been determined.

He argued that her funds and the funds of Maliver were mixed after she set up the company to perpetrate her “elaborate” fraud of a “Ponzi scheme” of which she was the “mastermind”.

Her parents on Wednesday lost their fight to find out the valuation provisional liquidators Bruce Gleeson and Daniel Soire have put on their three-bedroom two-bathroom unit with sweeping harbour and city views.

Melissa Caddick with her husband Anthony Koletti.
Melissa Caddick with her husband Anthony Koletti.

Counsel for the Grimleys, Sera Mirzabegian, told the court they were”potential” buyers of the property.

Justice Brigette Markovic agreed with the provisional liquidators that the valuation was a commercial matter and to release it, even to the Grimleys, could prejudice the administration of justice.

Records show it was bought in 2016 for $2.55 million.

The court heard that Caddick, 49, potentially left two wills, written in 2016 and 2019, whose contents have been suppressed.

The hearing will continue on Thursday.

Original URL: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/police-courts-nsw/melissa-caddicks-parents-may-lose-edgecliff-home-purchased-in-her-name/news-story/d715277aca7333f5ab66fb3dcaa7eb81