Or that the fallout would fracture his family and lead to hundreds of other people in his hometown losing millions, in some cases their life savings.

But that’s how the story goes for Western Australian man Rod McCagh.

Unfortunately for Mr McCagh, now 73, he happened to be seated beside “Queensland’s greatest conman” Alan Metcalfe during a flight sometime in the 2000s.

Alan was in the middle of his biggest and final scheme – convincing Australians to invest in an artificial intelligence business in a baffling case now being exposed in a news.com.au investigative podcast, The Missing $49 Million.

And Mr McCagh was its biggest victim.

Not only did he sell his family’s farms to invest, he also persuaded hundreds in his town to put money in, raising $15 million for the fraudster.

Yet in the most bizarre twist, even all these years later, Mr McCagh still holds a flag for the man who swindled him, refusing to accept it was all one big fraud.

Metcalfe convinced hundreds of investors to part with their money – in some cases their life savings – because he had discovered the secret code to artificial intelligence in the Bible.

But when he 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 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 most controversial politician, 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 and Apple Podcasts here.

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

Mr McCagh was a true believer in Metcalfe’s vision for his AI company, called Safe Worlds, which was pitched as being “bigger than Google”.

According to emails news.com.au has obtained, Mr McCagh lent Metcalfe $1.5 million to help get the business off the ground.

The Western Australian man sold his family’s wheat and sheep farm to loan $1.5 million to Metcalfe, news.com.au understands.

The problem was, Metcalfe couldn’t pay him back.

So Metcalfe convinced Mr McCagh to turn his loan into $1. 5 million worth of Safe Worlds shares – shares that have since turned out to be worthless.

Mr McCagh grew up in Geraldton, a Western Australian town five hours north of Perth by the coast.

He no longer lives there, but still has strong connections to the township – and as a result many other residents also invested in Safe Worlds.

Some of those people included Mr McCagh’s cousin, his sons, other friends, even people he had known from high school but who he hadn’t spoken to for decades.

In one email, he wrote that he personally got 450 shareholders on board, bringing in $15 million worth of investment to Metcalfe’s scheme.

Mr McCagh was heavily involved in the technology business. He was on the Safe Worlds advisory board and news.com.au understands he was planning to travel to the US on business trips with Metcalfe.

Some thought Mr McCagh was Metcalfe’s “right hand man” in Western Australia.

While I tried many times to have a chat with Mr McCagh, my attempts were futile. Until finally I got this short response.

“What is your agenda with Safe Worlds and or what are you trying to achieve?” he tells me.

“Any suggestions that Safe Worlds is a scam are misleading.

“Proof of this is the review of the software by a leading academic in AI.”

So even now, after all these years, Mr McCagh is still Metcalfe’s most devoted disciple.

But as I am about to discover, cracks were appearing in his faith. He would turn on the man he most respected, and he would go on to become the biggest enemy of Safe Worlds.

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