Major twist in the Melissa Caddick mystery: following the money trail | 60 Minutes Australia

talk about baffling does the macabre discovery of frauds the melissa haddock's foot on a beach mean she took her own life or was she murdered even stranger with no other body parts found is there a chance she's still alive the case of the 49 year old who pretended to be a financial whiz to fleece 25 million dollars from her family and friends continues to intrigue and tonight we can reveal another extraordinary twist one that could actually bring smiles to those whose life savings she stole liquidators following the money trail have uncovered a hidden and significant stash of cash [Music] the mystery of melissa katic and the missing millions had confounded detectives [Music] that was until the sea offered up a gruesome clue a shoe was located on the shoreline of the ordana national park within that shoe were the remains of a human foot dna from the foot was last night matched to a dna sample from melissa kadek's toothbrush and from family members the discovery of melissa's foot nearly 400 kilometers from where she was last seen was a plot twist that no one saw coming it's a mystery and a mystery every time that you think you're going to get an answer that throws up more questions tonight we can answer some of the biggest questions of all where did the money go where did the money go as for the first time financial investigators take us inside their search for the truth and reveal a major breakthrough they've located a hidden fortune the multi-million dollar question where is all the money now there's a share portfolio which is quite significant we're confident that there will be quite a healthy return to investors and after months of silence now melissa's family speak about this sorry saga it's a hard time for your family it's a hard time for everybody and it will take a very very long time for everybody to get over it and everybody to get back to normal this spot right now is ground zero until last week few people had heard of bornda beach a three kilometer stretch of sand on new south wales south coast near the holiday haven of marimbula but the quiet hideaway has now become the latest location in a crime drama that's captivated so much of australia it will be left to the coroner to establish what happened as police sniffer dogs scoured the sand here for more clues on the woman who's quickly become one of the country's most infamous fraudsters 60 minute special investigator gary jubilan was also on scene it's a breakthrough but it's it opens up so many options again it's a double-edged sword but certainly from the investigator's point of view it is a significant breakthrough because it can actually lock in that's a fact that you can lock in that at this point in time melissa's deceased and the body part has washed up here the question now is if this is suicide or something more sinister either way gary believes a person close to melissa knows more than they're letting on i think with the nature of the crime that melissa has allegedly committed it would be very difficult for someone else not to be aware of those activities or perhaps be an accomplice be actively involved in involved in that if there is an accomplice i see that as a potential motive for someone that might have um you know brought harm to melissa do you think police would be able to rule out foul play i don't think they could rule it out at this stage and as they've been at pains to point out they're keeping all options open and i think that's sensible in a situation like this no matter what's happened one thing's for sure melissa leaves behind a devastated 15 year old son as well as a brother her parents and her husband anthony coletti my sincerest condolences to all of those people i hope it puts um some sort of closure on the forum this is melissa's father-in-law rhodo coletti he's asked us not to show his full face after becoming the target of wild and unfair speculation online in relation to melissa's disappearance tonight he wants to have his say i think the um whole melissa caddick thing has taken on a life of its own i was guilty by association i am anthony's father and it would appear that some people have taken it upon themselves to throw assertions um fraudulent statements lies um you know defamation of all sorts against myself my character and my profession which is just what i could not stand for well i mean let's clear some of this speculation up i mean you've been accused of killing melissa caddick did you kill her no you've been accused of helping her mastermind her financial fraud well did you have any part in that at all nothing whatsoever and i'm interested as well tonight do you think your son anthony was capable of helping mastermind a pot like this well no i don't anthony's a hairdresser a damn good hairdresser but i don't believe uh he has the capacity to know what a financial scheme is i don't think he could have been in it at all or known what was going on even if he didn't know what was going on he would believe everything he was told anthony's become quite withdrawn from his family since melissa vanished without a trace in november last year we are asking the community to help bring melissa home that is all the unemployed hairdresser and dj came under heavy scrutiny after initially being evasive about his wife's whereabouts there's nothing else that i can give you further questions were also asked about why anthony waited more than 30 hours to report his wife missing but despite the mountain of evidence against melissa her husband is apparently still convinced she's innocent he convinced that melissa's been set up once again believing everything he's been told um and i think he's going to come crashing down eventually when the reality of what she's done finally hits with him so you think anthony still doesn't believe that melissa's done anything wrong when i spoke with him he certainly didn't no he believed she was set up and he was going to look at suing asic and everybody else for raiding their house and so on and so forth to which my comment was quite simple they acted on a duly issued warrant for research you have no grounds for anything it's obviously a very challenging time for him he'd be grieving he'd be confused do you think anthony's in denial i believe he is in denial delusional denial um he doesn't want to believe that you know the woman he loves and married is capable of it but unfortunately the proof's stacking up so much against her lover is blind sometimes isn't it absolutely but once again it's because he cares for the woman simple as that but the facts don't lie melissa katic ripped off more than 60 investors to the tune of 25 million dollars it turns out rodo was unwittingly caught up in this scam in a different way he's a justice of the peace and melissa would forge his signature to help verify her bogus documents her father-in-law didn't realize this until he sat down with us have you ever done any work for melissa's business malevolent absolutely not i've never been asked but i never would do it anyway you know your signature turns up in some of her businesses documents shouldn't does that look like your signature that is not my signature did you know that she was trading off your name as well not at all once again that is if you see my signature it's very distinctive and that is not it not mine how do you feel knowing that she's been doing that behind your back well considering all the other things she's supposed to have done what am i supposed to feel not surprised i take it no perhaps melissa's most despicable crime is ripping off her own elderly parents this week we learned the extent of it she took more than a million dollars from her mother and father who were both aged in their 80s they gave their daughter the money on the understanding she was going to invest in property but they've now discovered she used it to fund her lifestyle [Music] the vast majority of melissa's victims were her family and her friends this is like a mystery story i don't know if it's a bad one or a good one um they're just the plus seconds it's been a week of mixed emotions for billy mcmoore and michelle leslie so do you think there'll be any justice now yeah well now that they've found this i don't think we're going to see any justice michelle was a close friend of melissa's who unfortunately also became a client and now has lost the couple's entire superannuation [Music] was there a small part of you that was sad that mourned when the foot washed up i i felt sorry for the son and the parents and the parents the family because it's it's still a person a human i mean parents of murderers and uh armed hold up they're still parents and they still care about their child they still go to court when someone's been accused of something and i think for her parents it would be very very hard you feel sorry for the family i mean were you sad for melissa um a little bit only a little bit because it's still a person it's a life since losing their nest egg billy and michelle have had to up stumps from sydney and start a new life a few hours up the coast to reduce their living expenses in terms of the hope of ever getting your money back do you just assume you'll get nothing and if you get anything above that it's a bonus yep yeah correct exactly yeah we've put that to it yep a long time ago it's just gone and there's no point in just thinking oh it's going to be there tomorrow to find it under the pillow it's that's not there but tonight we can reveal financial sleuths have found a stash of cash melissa katic loved to flaunt her wealth there was the mansion in the exclusive suburb of dover heights with stunning views over sydney harbour in the garage there were a series of high-powered sports cars and in the wardrobe more than a million dollars of high-end clothing and jewelry and when she and her husband anthony left home for their regular luxury holidays to aspen and fiji they certainly made sure they did it in style i just find that really difficult to get my head around how somebody could spend that much money on private jets the lavish holidays to aspen and the lavish way that she spent on jewelry and so forth that's really i think what and why this this matter continues to be of interest to people no one knows the finances of melissa caddick better than bruce gleason he's the court-appointed liquidator who's been tasked with combing through every aspect of her business dealings this is the first time he's agreed to an interview since he took on the case more than two months ago you do this work for long enough and you you think that nothing will surprise you but then you get a matter like this and the level of interest and the level of mystery has absolutely blown me away when is the first time you've uncovered evidence from that melissa was defrauding her clients we have gone back to the incorporation or the start of the company maliba and we believe that almost immediately upon it starting that she was misusing investor funds you think she set up the business to defraud people there was certainly an intention to misuse investor funds melissa set up the business back in 2013 but little did her friends and family know at the time she was using their hard-earned retirement savings to fund her lavish lifestyle she'd boast about how successful she was to lure in new clients often bragging about owning the chalet she holidayed at in aspen each year but bruce has now discovered that was just one of melissa's many lies the reality was that at no point in time based on the investigations that we've done so far has she ever owned the aspen property despite a few years back her claiming to you know people that she had acquired it so this all goes to that idea that she had this facade of success that she tried to portray to her investors but it was all a lie absolutely the the extravagant lifestyle was being funded principally by the investors we've now uncovered an even more extraordinary twist in the aspen property deception such was melissa katic's dedication to living a lie that she actually made reference to that property in her will and left it to a family member that's despite the fact that she would have known she'd only ever rented the apartment to get to the bottom of melissa's fraud investigators have had to study her mindset as much as her money movements what sort of psychological traits does it take to try and pull off a scam like this i think somebody that is is very charismatic is a key trait there's um you know a level of self-confidence and also a level of invincibility i'm fascinated to know did melissa sense that the net was closing in or were there no telltale signs that she was prepping for the end of all of this i think classic with people that operate ponzi schemes tom they never think that the scheme will end there's as i said this level of invincibility that it will just keep going on but history shows us that all ponzi schemes fail at some point melissa kaddick's scam failed on november 11 last year when her mansion was raided by the corporate watchdog asic and federal police this footage from the operation is the last known sighting of melissa before she disappeared without a trace along with 25 million dollars of her investors funds but now we can reveal some of their money has been discovered hidden away in investments there's a shared portfolio which is uh quite significant when you say quite significant so there are some funds that were genuinely invested that could go back to the people that trusted melissa yes that's correct at the moment we're confident that there will be um quite a healthy return to investors i know you can't give me specifics in terms of actual dollar amounts but a significant amount um we believe it will be significant there's some still some challenges along the way that we've got to uh resolve uh and certainly if if they can be resolved then you know that will enable that return to be at a quite healthy amount the discovery is the first good news investors have received in months but investigators stress it's important to point out here that while melissa was using her clients funds to buy the shares it wasn't actually for them it was all for herself she made the purchases in her own name and she kept all the dividends for herself as well using them to continue funding her big spending ways but while there may now be some money for melissa's family and friends there is one particular family member will be missing out will melissa's husband anthony get a share of any of those assets he's not a creditor of the company or of of melissa that we can establish so we don't see him as part of that picture at this point so as it stands anthony gets nothing as i said we don't see him as a creditor while there have been plenty of developments for genuine creditors over the last week they say that such is their distrust of melissa that they can't help but question perhaps the biggest breakthrough in this case so far she could still be alive three teenage boys found a shoe and remains of a foot there have been some major bombshells in the case of melissa caddick this last fortnight police were able to confirm that the bones found within the asic sports shoe belonged to her but these days nothing surprises her friends billy mcmoore and michelle leslie after they were ripped off by the high-flying investor when you heard the news about melissa last week and the discovery what was the first thing you texted a friend oh my first reaction is it's only a foot where's the rest of the body is there cement evidence to say she's actually dead and then when i looked back at her and then saw that it was only a fort i've gone [Music] she's capable of anything what do you mean by she's capable of anything well she could still be alive maybe it's just something that she wanted to put out there to calm everything down if you find a thought that means that she must be dead but who would know i mean it does feel extremely unlikely but you honestly think she's capable of throwing out a red herring like that absolutely yep [Music] one of the enduring mysteries of this case is if melissa did go off the cliffs near her house then how did she manage to get down here without being detected by a single cctv camera the route from her house is several hundred meters it goes past a lot of mansions with plenty of security cameras yet none of them saw a thing do you find it still quite surprising that in such an affluent area where there's so many cctv cameras that none of them have managed to pick her up i would say to be unlikely if someone walked out of a home with intent to kill themselves i don't think they're going to be worried about whether they're being captured on cctv footage or not if i was looking at this investigation and i'm sure i'm not saying things that wouldn't have been done perhaps police are going to go back and check those cctv footage to see if anything's been missed in light of the new evidence that's come forward with the discovery of the bones from melissa's foot 60 minutes special investigator gary jubilan has been analysing the case and believes another aspect police will be digging deeper on is the area where melissa's foot washed ashore it turns out she was very familiar with this little known beach having actually gone on school camps here as a child that really got my interest and that's where i started to think well maybe she has been down in this area and this is where she's gone in the water is it a trait sometimes with criminals that they go to areas that they're familiar with when people do disappear in my experience quite often they go and i think when we were first talking about melissa's disappearance they go to an area that they're comfortable with or familiar with you'd have to look at the possibility that perhaps she was considering her options for quite some time before if she did commit suicide before she decided to kill herself barring another surprising twist the next step in this case is when the financial investigation brought by the corporate watchdog asic returns to court next month no i don't think this is a matter that will go on for months and months our priority is to work with the liquidators to get a return to the investors as quickly as we can tim mullally is asic's head of financial services enforcement he's revealed that the person who first smelled a rat with melissa and tipped off authorities managed to dodge a serious bullet in the process there was concerns raised by people who had been approached to invest in the uh with ms cadec they were concerned about the information that they'd received so the people that gave the initial tip off never actually invested with melissa that's my understanding they they made some inquiries they were a bit concerned with some of the responses that they received and determined that they would not go ahead with that investment for those that did lose their money there could be a payout of sorts soon it's understood that melissa caddick's house will be put up for sale in the coming weeks and local agents tell me it could fetch up to nine million dollars in the currently booming market now once you take away the amount still owing on the mortgage that'll mean there'll be an extra 5 million dollars added to the asset pool being split up between the investors and that's on top of the sizeable share portfolio we revealed earlier [Music] melissa's father-in-law coletti has spent months trying to correct false rumors implicating him in his daughter-in-law's crimes you've effectively become collateral damage in this case absolutely but now his focus is his son anthony who not only has lost his wife he's lost his entire livelihood your son could very soon be homeless is he welcome back at mum and dad's place if he wants to come back and i'm sure he already knows that what's your fatherly advice to anthony if you noticed some were there if and when you needed us were there simple as that can't say i do anymore uh he's an adult now you bring your children up and try and teach them the difference between right and wrong and can only hope that they make the decisions accordingly but you can't control that if this story has raised concerns and you need to speak with someone call lifeline on 13 11 14. hello i'm tom steinfert thanks for watching 60 minutes australia subscribe to our channel now for brand new stories and exclusive clips every week and don't miss out on our extra minute segments and full episodes of 60 minutes on nine now dot com dot a u as well as the nine now app

Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

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Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Tom Steinfort, 60Mins, #60Mins, melissa caddick, melissa caddick alive, melissa caddick dead, melissa caddick foot, anthony koletti, rodo koletti, is melissa caddick alive, maliver, missing millionaire, true crime, true crime australia, dover heights, dover heights death, melissa caddick money, following the money, money trail, missing millions, devil wears dior, body washed up on beach, gary jubelin, aspen ski resort, asic, financial crime

Id: OnvJ8j8t760

Length: 25min 39sec (1539 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 07 2021