Melissa Caddick: More victims ‘duped of millions’ by missing woman
Missing woman Melissa Caddick allegedly fleeced at least 20 investors who have come forward to complain they were duped of millions, according to ASIC.
Police & Courts
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Missing woman Melissa Caddick allegedly fleeced at least 20 more “distressed” victims who have come forward to complain they were duped of millions, according to ASIC.
Sources close to the investigation say corporate watchdog Australian Securities and Investments Commission and receivers have fielded calls from more investors in the past six weeks bumping the roll call of the 61 complainants towards 100.
The charming financial adviser who allegedly operated an elaborate Ponzi scheme and solicited friends, family and colleagues to invest in her company knowing they were less likely to question her motives, vanished from her $6 million Dover Heights home in the hours after Australian Federal Police and ASIC officers raided her affairs three months ago.
She is accused of squirrelling away millions of dollars of investors’ funds in 29 personal and company bank accounts instead of investing in shares so she could access investor funds to bankroll her $600,000-a-year lifestyle.
Sources say she cast her net wider than originally thought with the number of alleged victims continuing to rise.
“There is stark evidence of further victims of the suspected contraventions,” court documents lodged by ASIC in the Federal Court in December state.
“A large number of additional and, unsurprisingly, distressed consumers who claim to have invested with the defendants have contacted ASIC and provided further information and documents to ASIC regarding their investments which show that they have invested approximately $13.1 million with the defendants.”
NSW Police is leading the investigation into her disappearance.
Today police commissioner Mick Fuller said he believes Caddick is alive and would not have been acting alone when she fled her home on November 11
“You would have to safely assume that if her journey was one to leave Australia and to go overseas, particularly at the moment with the challenges getting out of the country without specific border forced approval, one would think that she would have to have the help of someone,” the commissioner told 2GB’s Ben Fordham.
“She is not the first person who has been alleged to have engaged in fraudulent activity, the reality is that the assets gained and used by her have all been locked down by government agencies.
“I think for her and her family it would be time to come home.”
Leading criminal psychologist Tim Watson-Munro believes Caddick, 49, is living in a non-extradition country.
“She is an accomplished liar, she chose her friends because they‘re likely to be less suspicious, and, like all narcissists, she will not suffer any remorse,” he said.
“She’s alive, she planned her disappearance well beyond the balance of probability, and is in a country with which Australia has no extradition treaty.
The runaway alleged conwoman lived the high life travelling the world, dressing in designer threads, living in mansions and splurging on counselling, $60 a week on cigarettes, $120 monthly in pet care, $80 weekly for pet food, plus $1350 for yearly pet insurance.
Neither her husband or son are accused of any wrongdoing in relation to the ASIC investigation or her disappearance.
Court documents lodged by corporate watchdog Australian Securities and Investments Commission in the Federal Court, say the financial adviser did not transfer clients’ funds to trading accounts held in the name of individual consumers, or into shares.
Instead ASIC officials told the Federal Court she siphoned off moneys to make mortgage repayments, pay other consumers and to buy jewellery and designer clothes from brands including Canturi, Christian Dior and Chanel.
She also allegedly used investor funds to pay her $5400 annual insurance fees for home and contents, $2000 per month income protection and $120 per month for her life insurance. Additional payments included a $19,000 a month loan repayment for her Dover Heights home and $5000 a month for her parents’ Edgecliff penthouse.
“Of those funds that are ultimately invested in shares, it appears that very little profit is generated by either capital growth or dividend payments,” the ASIC court document statement states.
ASIC began investigating Ms Caddick in early September after another financial adviser claimed she had been using her financial services licence without permission and had been running an elaborate Ponzi scheme.
Police have checked CCTV in streets around her home and at marine ports and Sydney Airport.
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