The one-storey brick home on a quiet Aussie street had a secret – and it was one that police were determined to discover.

Inside, it housed Alan Metcalfe, Queensland’s “greatest conmen”, whose latest venture had ripped off 600 mum and dad investors around the country to the tune of $49 million.

Metcalfe claimed he’d found the secret to artificial intelligence buried in the Bible and was running a tech business called Safe Worlds but after years of this deception going undetected, his web of lies was finally unravelling with authorities launching an official investigation.

The Australian Federal Police burst into his Gold Coast, taking computers and documents in a move that “crippled” his operation.

“He (Metcalfe) told me he was a bit shocked when they arrived with guns,” said long time friend and one of the investors, David Flint.

“The initial arrival was rather dramatic. (There was) a number of federal police.”

Just a month after the raids, Metcalfe died of a heart attack, but the timing of his death, has sparked rumours about whether the accused fraudster is really dead in a baffling case now being exposed in a news.com.au investigative podcast, The Missing $49 Million.

When police raided Metcalfe’s home, they were acting on behalf of the nation’s corporate regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, or ASIC.

ASIC was “concerned” by what Metcalfe’s artificial intelligence platform Safe Worlds was up to.

The police “executed search warrants” multiple times at ASIC’s behest – at Metcalfe’s home and business on the Gold Coast, and his office in Brisbane’s CBD, in November 2016.

They then raided the same locations in January 2017.

Just a month later, Metcalfe died and his wife Mary inherited the business. There is no suggestion that Mary Metcalfe was in any way involved with Alan’s unlawful conduct.

A freedom of information request shows that the Metcalfes sent a total of 45 emails to ASIC. Sixteen of those were from Alan Metcalfe.

He sent his final email to the corporate police just three days before his fatal heart attack.

With Metcalfe dead, ASIC’s attention turned to his wife, Mary Metcalfe, as the new boss of Safe Worlds.

Five 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 and Apple Podcasts here.

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

The ASIC investigation found Safe Worlds had broken the law – it had failed to register as a foreign company and was also offering shares to Australian investors without proper disclosure documents, which were both breaches under the Corporations Act.

Safe Worlds had to enter into what is known as a court enforceable undertaking, where a business strikes a deal with ASIC to spare it from going to court criminally or civilly.

Under the agreement, Mary Metcalfe and Safe Worlds had to stop selling shares, essentially shutting down the scheme.

Mary also had to notify shareholders of the investigation and the scolding, and ASIC posted it online, forever available on the internet.

ASIC also reserved their rights to take Safe Worlds to court either civilly or criminally in the future.

Mary blamed her late husband Alan for everything when asked about the ordeal.

“ASIC found no financial impropriety, only breaches of what could be seen without belittling their importance as more technical rules,” she said to me.

“In particular, the number of shareholders we could sell to without the expense of a prospective buyer. My husband erroneously believed that the limit applied on each issue and not the total.

“Unfortunately, we should have had access to continuous legal advice, an area where we had tried to save expenses.”

Marina Kofman is a lawyer who used to work for ASIC and said ASIC would only issue a public warning about a business – like they did for Safe Worlds – if they had some serious concerns about the company.

Ms Kofman actually worked on ASIC’s case against infamous Sydney woman Melissa Caddick, who stole $23 million from investors and then disappeared after ASIC raided her home, during her time at the corporate regulator.

“There are areas of the law where things can slip through the cracks,” she said.

“There’s no visibility. So when ASIC issues warnings to investors, having received some sort of tip off, some sort of information from a stakeholder who has knowledge of these things, it is in order to fill that gap so that the public can know that there is an issue with this particular company.”

ASIC is known as a toothless tiger and it’s very hard to get the corporate watchdog to take tip-offs it receives seriously. And yet they did for Safe Worlds.

John Adams, an economist who’s been analysing ASIC’s reports for several years, found it’s virtually impossible to get the regulator to take action on a complaint made against it.

“So the bottom line is to get the financial police, to investigate crime, it is super hard and it’s getting harder,” he said.

Less than 0.36 per cent of tip-offs are investigated – and that’s out of more than 10,000 complaints, according to Mr Adams.

“They have done a very poor job at protecting people’s money,” he added. “We’re all paying taxes so they can put the bad people away. They’re not doing it.”

And Mr Adams said ASIC’s poor track record hasn’t gone unnoticed.

“It’s the most criticised Commonwealth agency in the country and yet the frustration I have is that there’s been multiple attempts at reform and no one has been able to reform it.”

Indeed, when I go back and ask ASIC to comment on their Safe Worlds investigation, they say their response would have been different, if they were investigating the company now.

An ASIC spokesman says that they struck the deal with Mary Metcalfe on behalf of the company before the 2019 Financial Services Royal Commission, a pretty shocking spotlight into Australia’s problem with white collar crime.

Since then, ASIC claims to have changed their enforcement culture and also changed the circumstances where they will accept an enforceable undertaking.

But ASIC has also copped criticism in a more recent inquiry into its performance which recommended the whole government department be overhauled.

Senator Andrew Bragg’s inquiry into ASIC concluded in July and the committee found that ASIC was too soft on white collar crime.

“It is clear ASIC has failed,” the inquiry chair, Senator Bragg, said in a speech tabled to parliament.

“Countless Australians have been hurt by ASIC’s consistent failure to investigate and deter corporate crime.”

Senator Bragg called for a major change in his list of recommendations – for ASIC to be separated into two distinct sections, “one focused on companies and the other on financial services enforcement,” he said.

Five 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 and Apple Podcasts here.

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