‘Greatest conman in Queensland’ remains undetected for 50 years – until now

He’s the biggest Aussie fraudster you’ve never heard of who took twice the amount of money infamous Sydney conwoman Melissa Caddick stole from her victims.

Ex Sydney NRL player Michael Blake (pictured) lost $300,000 in the scheme, and is still wondering what happened to his money.

EXCLUSIVE

He’s the biggest Aussie fraudster you’ve never heard of, who took twice the amount of money infamous Sydney conwoman Melissa Caddick stole from her victims.

Gold Coast “techpreneur” Alan Metcalfe had links to former US President Donald Trump and there are warnings about his scams dating all the way back to the 1980s.

His fraud remained largely undetected for 50 years until being exposed by a News Corp investigation, which will be revealed in news.com.au’s new eight-part podcast series, The Missing $49 Million, launching on Monday.

Metcalfe convinced more than 600 mum and dad investors that he had found the secret code to artificial intelligence in the Bible and that his company would be “bigger than Google”.

But when he died suddenly in 2017, those investors were left wondering what happened to their money.

All $49 million of it.

Alan on his wedding day in 1965. The earliest records of his scams date back to the 1960s.

Metcalfe was a seemingly successful businessman, with a big turnout at his funeral. He always wore a suit and tie even in 43 degree heat and regaled investors with tales of his exploits running ASX-listed companies.

But news.com.au can reveal that Metcalfe’s real origin story was very different.

He grew up in Cairns in Queensland’s tropical north and moved to Mt Isa and became a life insurance salesman.

There, he carried out a variety of scams, including visiting cemeteries and writing down the names he found on tombstones. He would then essentially sell life insurance to these dead people and pocketed a hefty commission in the process.

“Quite frankly, Mr Metcalfe is one of the greatest conmen to have resided in north Queensland,” a politician said about the prolific fraudster in 1984, according to a parliamentary transcript.

Alan Metcalfe spruiking his most recent scheme before his death, the Safe Worlds project, on his YouTube channel.

Fast forward to the 2000s and Metcalfe was living on the Gold Coast and focusing his efforts on his latest idea – Safe Worlds.

The company was supposed to be a combination of Google, eBay, PayPal and YouTube, with a video hub where goods could be advertised, searched for and traded online.

Aussies poured in their money, in some cases their life savings, or superannuation funds, or both.

One man sold his farm to invest $1.5 million.

Michael Blake, 63, a former professional footballer from Sydney, put a total of $300,000 into the scheme.

Blake raised a further $1 million for Safe Worlds, with Metcalfe encouraging his followers to get their own friends and family involved.

“Alan liked me because of my contacts and the contacts that my contacts had,” Blake said. “I feel as if I was a little bit used, probably.”

Others raised concerns about how this bore an uncanny resemblance to a pyramid scheme.

EX NRL player Michael Blake was caught up in the scheme. Photographer: Adam Yip

Manly RL players (L-R) Mike Eden, Graham Eadie and Michael Blake with a trophy in 1982.

One of the transfers Michael Blake made to the scheme. He started by investing $5000 but put in more from there.

Metcalfe’s investors would be considered successful Australians, running businesses of their own, with tens of thousands of dollars in spare cash to put into a start-up, believing they had found the opportunity of a lifetime.

But it turned out to be quite the opposite.

What they might not have realised was that Metcalfe was also opening up businesses in notorious tax havens – the British Virgin Islands and the Cayman Islands – and transferring shares there.

Metcalfe also spent investors’ money travelling to and from Australia and the US, in the name of going to business meetings for Safe Worlds.

But at the same time, he was there pushing his own right wing political beliefs, striking deals with members of the Tea Party and possibly paving the way for Donald Trump’s ascension to power.

The Safe Worlds platform was mean to overtake Google and its founder claimed it was worth $10 billion.

Metcalfe’s web of lies was finally catching up with him by 2017.

Near the end of his life, the corporate regulator, ASIC, was closing in.

The Australian Federal Police raided his home and offices multiple times as part of an official government investigation.

Just a month later Metcalfe had a fatal heart attack but the convenient timing sparked another pressing question – is Metcalfe himself really dead?

And what’s happened to the missing $49 million?

News.com.au has just launched the Missing $49 Million, an eight-part investigative podcast series examining Metcalfe’s colourful life, and following the trail of money.

Available on Spotify here.

Available on Apple Podcasts here.

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