Episode 13 - Melissa Caddick

0:16 Welcome back everybody to episode 13 of Two Crime Besties.

0:21 Welcome everyone, so excited to be here for another week.

0:24 So am I. It's, it's very exciting.

0:26 We've got our new equipment. We've got, if you're watching on

0:29 Spotify or YouTube, we've actually got some little

0:32 backdrops now. I feel like every week we're

0:35 kind of getting a little bit, you know, more professional and

0:37 whatnot. As long as they stay up.

0:39 Yeah. Oh well, we'll see.

0:41 We'll. See, we might have to get

0:42 invested in the stands next. I think so.

0:44 Whatever happens, happens. But yeah, they're cool for now.

0:48 How's your week been? Yeah, yeah, pretty good week,

0:50 not too bad. It's been a busy one of as

0:53 usual, running around after kids and Yep, keeping me very busy

0:57 actually. But.

0:57 Yeah, I've been really enjoying watching the Olympics.

1:00 Loving watching the Olympics and my kids are way into it.

1:04 Yeah, yes, yeah, I'm very well. I mean, because Australia is

1:07 doing so well this year too, like better than they've ever

1:10 done before with gold medal tellies and stuff, that it's

1:12 like, I think it's just making it even more exciting.

1:13 And yeah. And every every morning you wake

1:15 up and there's a new gold medal to add to telly.

1:18 And how's the little go getter? The 14 year old skateboarder

1:21 Arissa True. Holy cow, believable.

1:23 That's if she's. Such a gorgeous kid, like to be

1:26 14 and being interviewed by the world's media and to come across

1:30 so amazingly, just she's incredible.

1:34 Well, I got to like, have a bit of reminiscent from my like,

1:36 younger, younger days. And I was able to say to the

1:39 boys, you know, that because I think it was on Instagram that

1:41 Tony Hawk shared, yeah, her win. And I'm like, well, Tony Hawk's

1:45 like more my era. And so I'm like, then I'm

1:48 showing the boys like Tony Hawk videos of him doing his stuff.

1:50 And they were, they were blown away by him.

1:52 And I'm like, well, Tony Hawk will say Arisa True is better

1:55 than him even now. Yeah.

1:56 He does and. Then she's flicking. 1414

1:59 Speaking of Tony Hawk, when we were kids, my brother and I used

2:02 to play Tony Hawk on the Nintendo 64.

2:04 It was the best, yeah, but my brother, you'd would turn the

2:08 Nintendo off because I was better at it than him.

2:10 And if I got a higher score, he'd literally turned them into

2:14 score. And I'm still not over at 25. 30

2:17 years later. So today we are talking about

2:21 none other than Melissa Kadik. So she she's a this is a really

2:27 interesting story with a couple of very interesting characters,

2:30 most notably her second husband, Tony Coletti.

2:34 Anthony Coletti. We will get back.

2:36 We will get to him. Yeah, as the episode goes on.

2:39 But stay tuned, guys. Oh yeah.

2:42 Yeah, that's so good. So good.

2:46 So Melissa Kadik, born Melissa Grimley, she was born in Sydney

2:53 in NSW, in Australia on the 21st of April in 1971.

2:58 She was born into a very sort of middle class, normal Australian

3:04 family, had a pretty typical upbringing from everything I've

3:07 been able to hear. Yeah, her family seem lovely.

3:10 Yeah, her mum and dad, hard working people.

3:14 She's got a brother who has really stuck by her throughout

3:17 this entire ordeal, even though, you know, he was actually one of

3:21 her victims in the. End impacted by this.

3:23 Yeah, yeah. So Melissa was, AI guess, a

3:28 self-proclaimed. Businesswoman very much so

3:33 self-proclaimed. I mean she from workout she

3:35 finished school and went and she didn't do great at school.

3:38 She didn't do poor at school like.

3:40 I actually think she didn't do very well at school.

3:43 Like from yeah, from one of the podcasts I was listening to.

3:46 There's a really good podcast about this, this case called

3:48 Liar Liar Yeah, go and check it out if you want a long form

3:52 podcast about this case. And and goes into really

3:55 intricate detail. But apparently she used to do

3:58 like what is known as. It sounds horrible.

4:01 But veggie maths, I did veggie maths.

4:03 That's what I did too. You had to do a math subject to

4:05 get into, like into education. Yeah.

4:08 And so I had, I did veggie maths 'cause I suck at maths.

4:10 But yeah, surprise, surprise, later on got, you know,

4:12 diagnosed with dyslexia. Of course it wasn't great at

4:16 maths. Derpies.

4:17 Yeah. It's only you've known sooner.

4:20 If only that's why Veggie Mouse was my perfect subject.

4:23 Well, I I don't even think it was a perfect subject for

4:26 Melissa because I don't think she did.

4:27 Yeah, I think she did really, like, she really struggled with

4:30 it from all accounts. So she's.

4:34 Finance, sorry. Well, she didn't, actually.

4:37 She kind of fell into finance though, didn't she?

4:39 In a way. Yeah, yeah, because.

4:41 She basically, I mean, she after school, I think she aspired to

4:47 go to university for her. The way her life was perceived

4:51 by other people was really important even from back when

4:55 she was, you know, really, really young.

4:57 So after school, after high school, she actually went to, it

5:01 was called Patrick's College. And it wasn't a university, it

5:05 was just a well, she ended up doing a secretary and business

5:09 admin course there. Yeah.

5:11 Yeah. That like that kind of lead into

5:13 to her first, her first job. But even from that start, she

5:19 was lying on her resume. Yeah.

5:20 Yeah. Well, I think I, I'm not sure if

5:22 did she lie on her first, first job because she was employed

5:26 originally as an office administrator.

5:28 So I don't know that she would have had to have lied to get

5:31 that job. Given, probably not the.

5:32 Course at Patrick's College that she did, yeah.

5:35 However, pretty much every job she had subsequently, yes, she

5:39 lied. She lied about.

5:40 So she worked for NRMA in their investment division as an

5:45 office, office admin type type role.

5:48 She'd be getting coffees. She'd be like, you know,

5:51 inputting data, that's it. And I think she'd take like

5:54 minutes of meetings and that kind of thing.

5:56 So I guess she was Privy to some information during that time.

5:59 And then there was a boutique investment bank and the guy, I

6:03 think, who started that bank wanted to groom someone to sort

6:08 of get somebody on board to kind of help build his business and

6:13 somebody he could kind of mentor and grow.

6:16 In order to get that role, though, she lied, yes.

6:20 So this was the start of known documented lying.

6:25 In this case, on her resume she put fictitious qualifications

6:30 including a degree from finance from Sydney from the University

6:34 of Technology in Sydney. It later came out when the

6:38 University was was approached to find out whether or not she

6:42 actually held this qualification.

6:44 Their comment was there is no record of completion of a

6:50 diploma in finance or a Master's in business or finance or any

6:54 qualification under the name Melissa Caddick or Grimly.

6:59 Yep. Never attended, never even

7:01 applied. No, no record of her whatsoever.

7:04 No record of her. Yeah.

7:07 So in 1998, six months after starting at this boutique

7:13 investment bank, which actually just real quick, what's a

7:15 boutique investment bank and how can I get in?

7:20 It sounds nice. Yeah, so she six months after

7:27 starting there, they actually found out that they discovered

7:30 that she'd stolen about $2000 by forging her boss's signature on

7:37 on checks. And they found it out because I

7:38 think this there was a branch in Perth and a branch in NSW.

7:44 And there was some discrepancy when they were balancing the

7:46 books. And the owner of the business

7:49 went down to the bank so that he could actually see, physically

7:52 see the checks. And he looks at the signature on

7:54 them and he's like, that's not my signature, not even.

7:57 Close. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

7:58 Like, you think she'd see his signature and at least try and

8:01 copy it, but apparently it wasn't even like it was real

8:03 really obvious that it wasn't his.

8:05 Yeah. She was like skimming off the

8:06 top, basically just stealing money from the company.

8:08 Yeah. So in this instance it was to

8:10 the tune of around 2000 Australian dollars, so not a

8:13 lot. So not a lot.

8:14 So he said to her, you can either leave and leave quietly

8:19 and without consequence, or I'm going to call the police.

8:22 And she chose to leave. Now had they prosecuted her at

8:27 the time, do you think the outcome would have been any

8:29 different? Yeah, I think that maybe, look,

8:33 she was prolific in what she ended up doing and I think she

8:36 would have tried to find ways, but maybe, maybe, maybe there

8:39 was would be some record then of who of things that she'd done in

8:42 the past and therefore she couldn't have maybe got as far

8:45 as she did. Yeah, yeah, that's what I think.

8:48 I think she still would have tried it on.

8:51 Yeah, but agreed, I think maybe it would have put a little flag

8:56 up when she was, you know, I don't know when she was starting

8:59 to be investigated maybe and was like and they could go back and

9:02 go oh, right in 19. 90 had been prosecuted.

9:04 Yeah, or even just a red flag of some.

9:06 Even if she wasn't prosecuted, I don't know if if that would have

9:09 made a difference. Yeah.

9:11 You know, we'll never know. Yeah.

9:13 So yeah, she she forged 4 checks to the tune of of the $2000.00.

9:18 So yeah, I'm sure if she wasn't caught, she would have just kept

9:21 doing it. Oh, absolutely.

9:22 And look, and I the company not doing anything further, I

9:25 understand that. How much easier for them to deal

9:26 with it. Just go, hey, you're done here.

9:28 Off you go. Like I mean, to go through

9:30 actually, you know, filing the full, you know, and trying to

9:33 charge her or whatever with this would have been a nightmare for

9:36 the company a bit. So don't blame them for it.

9:39 Yeah, but it has meant that she's been pretty much gone.

9:41 Right. Well, OK, I've learnt something

9:43 and I'll adapt. And this is how I'm going to get

9:45 around to this next time. Yeah.

9:47 She was then hired as a financial advisor.

9:49 Sorry, this is the company that she was looking to be groomed to

9:53 become a financial advisor through.

9:55 Sorry that wasn't sorry at the boutique investment bank.

9:58 She was hired as office administrator as.

10:00 Well, sorry, but then the next job, then she again lied on her

10:03 resume, yes, saying that at the previous company where she was

10:06 literally just administratively, really, Yeah, they were wanting

10:09 to help groom her and, you know, teach her and things, but she in

10:12 on her resume. I put that basically she was

10:14 managing billion dollar accounts.

10:16 Literally be able to be yeah, yeah.

10:19 Which was she was not. I think she said that she was

10:21 managing Nrmas, like international investments or

10:25 something. Yes, Yeah.

10:28 So she was hired as a financial advisor then for Wise Financial

10:32 Services. They were a subsidiary of ING,

10:36 yes. So a really large corporation.

10:39 And was this the one that she like basically became a small

10:43 owner of? So she.

10:44 She invested small. Well, I guess so.

10:47 She borrowed 750,000 Australian dollars to buy a 25% stake in

10:52 the business. Yeah.

10:53 So I mean what's that valued at $3,000,000 a business.

10:58 She I I guess they must have seen some potential in her.

11:02 By all accounts, the even though the owner of that business

11:09 decided that he didn't want his name out there, he has made

11:13 statements around her employment at at the time.

11:16 And he did say that she was very personable.

11:19 She was wonderful with the clients.

11:21 She was very well liked by everybody.

11:24 Yeah. She was clearly grooming people

11:26 or she was gaining some some knowledge.

11:29 I mean, she was very, very and manipulative.

11:32 Yeah. So she so, yeah.

11:35 So I've written in my notes here that by 2003 she was very well

11:39 regarded in the industry and she featured on the cover of the

11:43 Independent Financial Advisor. Yep, the first of two features.

11:47 Oh yeah. I didn't know there was 2.

11:49 Only Oh yeah, the other one was after.

11:51 She was after, yeah. We normally not so yeah, yeah,

11:55 right. So one's like, you know, looking

11:57 pretty good. Yeah, the other.

11:58 One maybe not so bad. She fell out with Wise

12:02 Investments when the company refused to allow her to

12:05 recommend property and shares to her clients.

12:09 Yeah, she was basically going beyond her scope, scope of which

12:14 her job was. Against regulatory compliance

12:16 rules at the time, and I believe still is.

12:18 Still, yeah. So she basically left there in

12:23 December of 2004 and she left with her $750,000 investment.

12:29 They gave that back to. Her as well.

12:30 I'm like yeah, that's right. It's how much they wanted her

12:32 out and. Yeah, they paid her back with no

12:34 interest. No, like literally just gave her

12:36 the money she'd invested into the company.

12:38 Yeah. And went haha, see you later.

12:40 She claimed to her friends. Now, this is where the con

12:44 really, really started, because she claimed to her family and

12:48 friends that she received that she was involved.

12:51 Actually there there are several stories.

12:53 Yeah, she changed her story for everyone.

12:54 Yeah. The main story is, or the most

12:56 commonly told story was that she, during her time at Wise,

13:01 she developed a piece of software with a few other people

13:04 that superannuation funds purchased and that she was paid

13:11 $86 million as a result of generating this piece of

13:17 software, $86 million. Oh my God and that she wasn't

13:22 allowed to work in the industry for 10 years.

13:23 She signed a non compete. For five years, I think it was a

13:25 non compete. For five years, I read.

13:27 Oh, OK, I read 10, but yeah, regardless, there was there was

13:30 a period of time where she wasn't supposed to be trading.

13:33 Yeah, yeah. She also claimed that she got

13:36 that money from the company because of a sexual harassment.

13:40 Claim Yeah, who's paying out 86 mil for a sexual harassment plan

13:44 that claim? No one.

13:46 But but so she was telling her friends and family this and they

13:49 didn't question her. They believed what she said.

13:52 Yeah, yeah, yeah. She just went out like she would

13:55 just spin everything. And I'm.

13:57 I'm guessing she targeted who she changed her story for too.

14:01 She. Definitely, definitely did what?

14:02 Would get that person more empathy, like for her, like.

14:05 It was really interesting, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

14:09 So, I mean, she then went on to start her own company, company

14:16 called Maliva or Maliva, I've heard it.

14:20 I've heard it. I've had it both ways, yeah.

14:21 Yeah, we've always got something in these episodes that we're not

14:24 quite sure how to pronounce. Get my tongue around, yeah.

14:26 And she started to rein in her friends, so she offered.

14:31 I mean, I guess people kind of conned into giving their money

14:35 to her because she was like, look, I'm just doing this for

14:38 family and friends. I'm only taking on a few

14:40 clients. And I've got a spot, a spot

14:42 available just now just for you. So if you if you invest with me.

14:46 And so people felt pressured for sure.

14:48 Well. She, I mean, she started out her

14:50 first target was her lifelong friend who and the way she sort

14:54 of got her in was like, oh, we're we're both now single

14:57 mothers and I'm investing my money.

14:59 I could just do it for you at the same time.

15:00 And we could both benefit from this, you know, and because

15:03 that's where my skill set is. It's like, you know, trying to

15:05 bond with someone over that genuine, you know, common ground

15:10 and then using that to her benefit to do over her best

15:14 friend. Yeah, yeah, I just.

15:16 That's gets me. Yeah, yeah.

15:18 But yeah, she very much was like, I've only got 15 spots.

15:22 I only ever take 15 clients at a time.

15:24 Bullshit. Like she ended up with 60

15:27 clients. At the.

15:28 Moment at our peak yeah you know some of them did pull their

15:32 money out at times what it and you know but then she quickly

15:35 replaced them obviously because she's got to get the money

15:38 coming in. Yeah, and what was she getting

15:39 the money coming in for? She wasn't investing people's

15:42 money. No, she was spending it.

15:44 And I mean every all. Friends plane, I guess for our

15:47 international listeners too, what a superannuation fund is, I

15:50 guess because it's very it's fairly Australian base that

15:52 basically it's it's a fund where we put money in our employers

15:55 contribute to these funds so that we have retirement money.

15:59 So instead of necessarily relying entirely on government

16:01 funds, at the end of your working life you have a bucket

16:05 of money that. Yeah, I think the equivalent in

16:07 America is a 401 401K. Yeah.

16:09 I'm not sure what the equivalent in Europe or Asia is or whether

16:12 there even is one, but it is basically, yeah, money for your

16:16 retirement. Yeah, yeah.

16:17 And so there's different ways in Australia where you can how you

16:20 can invest that. So most people use like funds

16:23 that are set up, some of them are like industry specific and

16:27 things like that. You can choose how, which, which

16:29 fund you go with and they all invest in various ways.

16:33 Or another way of going about it is doing a self managed

16:36 Superfund, which is what Melissa Kadik was basically saying that

16:40 she was able to do for these people, is take your money out

16:43 of that company's fund, give it to me and I'll invest it for you

16:48 in whatever various ways to make the money.

16:52 So she was saying that she was getting far greater returns on

16:56 the investments than the stock standard investment funds or

16:59 superannuation funds that people had their money in.

17:02 So. And it's quite regulated in

17:04 terms of taking money out of super funds.

17:06 Like it's, it is regulated that everyone must try and attempt to

17:09 have this money when you finish your working life, that it's not

17:12 a matter of, you know, or you can just freely take money out.

17:14 You've actually got to prove what you're going to do with

17:16 this money in a, in some sort of superannuation, in retirement

17:20 way. So you can invest in property or

17:21 shares, things like that. But it's regulated, yeah, even

17:25 under a super, even under a self managed situation.

17:27 That's it, Yeah. So Melissa was conning all of

17:32 her friends and family, so they're thinking she's got this

17:34 $886,000,000 windfall and she's doing this out of the kindness

17:37 of her own heart to help them build their portfolios and

17:40 wealth base. Already living like this very

17:42 lavish lifestyle and everyone was sort of querying where this

17:45 money could have come from that she was living like that.

17:47 Well, she hadn't. Yeah, she had a story for where

17:49 this money came from, but it wasn't her money.

17:52 It was their money that she was spending.

17:54 So this childhood friend of hers, she conned her parents,

17:58 her nephew, niece, sister, to invest all of their money with

18:03 her as well. Yeah.

18:04 And when they saw that they were getting these incredible

18:06 returns, they were not only investing their superannuation,

18:09 they were investing, like putting extra of their money.

18:12 Yeah. Earnings into into her

18:15 portfolio. The accounts that she created

18:19 through COMSEC. So that's a trading account.

18:21 They had 6 digits. Turns out Comsec's actual

18:25 accounts, trading accounts have eight.

18:28 No one picked up on that. But I wouldn't.

18:30 I would have no idea because she would fraudulently.

18:32 So monthly they would get these statements from her that she

18:35 just fraudulently created. And yeah, and these digits at

18:38 the top of the account number. Now a COMSEC account typically

18:42 is managed by the individual who owns the account.

18:46 So these people that she was pulling in were not financially

18:50 savvy people in that they, I mean, I'm not a fully vouched to

18:54 that. I wouldn't know the first thing

18:55 about what, how you manage these things on your own.

18:57 Yeah. I mean, I've often said I'd love

18:58 to put some money in shares, but I'm scared, terrified of it.

19:01 Like I don't know how to do that.

19:02 Yeah. So they were basically relying

19:03 on her to go, I know what I'm doing, so I'll do it for you.

19:07 They didn't know that these Comsec accounts are not meant to

19:09 be managed by the the financial advisor.

19:13 You as the that person can direct where you send the money,

19:16 but you're meant to be able to have full access to that account

19:18 and be able to enter like literally login like you do to

19:21 your bank account, check how your shares are doing on a daily

19:23 basis if you wanted to. That's not what she set up for

19:27 them. Like they couldn't access it.

19:29 They had to go via her to see what their shares were doing and

19:32 she was just creating these false documents.

19:34 That's because there was telling errors and everything, no?

19:37 Like, you think she'd have a bit of attention to detail because,

19:39 yeah, by all accounts she was a bit of a control freak as well.

19:42 Yeah, so. And she was very organised and

19:46 meticulous in the way she approached.

19:48 I'm going to say work, but it's not well, yeah, Her, her, whole

19:51 her. Wardrobe which I wanted to check

19:53 out. I know, like she had this, so

19:56 she was spending everybody's money.

19:58 She was going on these lavish holidays she had.

20:01 So she had a home in Dover Heights in Sydney, which is the

20:07 second most expensive suburb in Australia.

20:10 Yeah. The average house price there I

20:14 think is something like $4.8 million.

20:17 The average house price Australia wide is somewhere like

20:19 around the $1,000,000 mark. 50. Or something.

20:21 Something like that. Yeah, but her house was actually

20:24 worth $6.2 million. Well, it wasn't.

20:27 Actually, well, so. She it was actually she overpaid

20:30 for that that property and which again is her just like kind of

20:33 going, well, I can so I will. Apparently she was looking at

20:36 some property. I don't think it was this

20:39 particular one. It might.

20:40 They ended up they bought a penthouse in like Sydney City as

20:43 well. Yeah, it might have been when

20:44 she was looking for that and she's looking around and they

20:49 actually, she didn't end up purchasing this properly

20:51 property, but she was looking around.

20:52 She was like, and it was worth $36 million.

20:55 And apparently she said to the real estate agent, I wouldn't

20:57 pay a dollar over 32. Like, what a wanker, what a

21:03 wanker. And 32,000,000 of whose money?

21:06 Whose money? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

21:09 I've got a note here that she spent $54,000 in one hit at a

21:13 shoe store. So I think she spent like

21:15 $250,000 at Dior in 18 months or something.

21:20 And that's just at Dior. Yeah, she also had like,

21:23 Valentino, Louis Vuitton. She was spending big and she

21:27 loved her fashion. Oh yeah, shoes galore.

21:31 They were all catalogued in her wardrobe with pictures on the

21:33 front of the shoe boxes like her.

21:35 Wardrobe looked amazing she wouldn't wear the same outfit

21:39 twice yeah either so she she was famously known for saying that

21:44 she that she would wear a ball gown to work just because she

21:47 hadn't hadn't everything else to wear that she hadn't worn yet.

21:50 Oh wow yeah people have sort of commented that she would rock up

21:54 in these outfits that really didn't match what she was doing

21:57 even and this is early days too. She was very much into her brand

22:00 names that even when she wasn't pulling 100 hundreds of

22:04 thousands of dollars from people, when she was just

22:06 skimming the tops of other things for, you know, a few

22:08 $1000, she would rock up to work.

22:10 You know, I mean, they always say, you know, dress for the job

22:13 you want. Yeah, but she was fully dressing

22:16 for the job she wanted like, and it was way above where she was

22:19 actually at. Well, I think one of her bosses

22:21 was like, I couldn't understand how she could afford a Louis

22:24 Vuitton bag and. Because she was, she was taking

22:26 money off you, mate, Yeah. And the designer clothes, like,

22:29 yeah, that's it. Yeah.

22:32 She went on some incredibly extravagant holidays I've got

22:35 listed down here. Aspen was a she frequented.

22:37 I love the Aspen one because even to a very recent time and

22:42 husband believes that the the place that they were staying in

22:45 in Aspen that she owned it and she would tell people when she

22:49 was there holidaying in Aspen that that was their chalet and

22:52 that they owned it. And it was actually like

22:55 apparently she bumped into a fan like a a friend.

22:57 Well, not a friend. She they just happened to just

22:59 get talking to the people and it turned out their kids went to

23:01 school together back here in Australia.

23:04 And this woman was like being told that, you know, by her,

23:06 that by Melissa Caddick that you know, that, you know, we own the

23:08 chalet And she fully knew that she didn't.

23:10 She's like it gets rented out like and.

23:13 And we come here every year and we know that I think they knew

23:16 the owner of. Something like that.

23:17 They legit hate big money. Yeah, I think it was Prue and I

23:21 just love that cause Proof and Brighton.

23:23 Prue and True. It just fits really well.

23:28 But yeah, so she she would just tell these blatant lies like

23:31 this woman was like, I'm being such a snob here, but what the

23:34 hell are you people doing? Yeah.

23:37 So I think it's probably worth going back at this point before

23:40 we really get into her undoing. Yeah, we go back to sort of her

23:45 more her personal life and the way that kind of played out.

23:48 Melissa was originally married, so she's got a penchant for men

23:54 named Tony. That's so true.

23:58 Because her first husband was named Tony Anthony Kadik and

24:04 they were married. He was a builders laborer, I

24:07 believe, when they first got married.

24:09 Yeah. And she really, she, she didn't

24:11 like that. Well, he was.

24:12 He was an English backpacker out here.

24:14 Like he was a friend of a friend that she got introduced to her

24:16 whilst he was backpacking out here.

24:17 Yeah, but as we were saying before, she appearances were

24:22 everything to her and oh God, she couldn't possibly marry a

24:25 labourer. So she really pushed him and

24:27 pushed him to I think he ended up studying law in the end.

24:31 So he was from, from England and it at some point they decided to

24:36 move over there to be closer to his family.

24:39 They had a young son at the time and they lived in Essex and he

24:44 was commuting every day to London for work.

24:47 And by all accounts, he was very successful in his career, like

24:50 he was really establishing himself and.

24:53 But she didn't like Essex. No, well she was quite secluded

24:58 I suppose and she moved from Australia.

25:01 She didn't really know many people I don't think being a

25:04 stay at home mom because she wasn't working while she was

25:06 there. So yeah, she wasn't wasn't

25:11 working when she was in England. She was raising their son

25:14 together, but she wasn't that into it, I don't think.

25:17 No, no, She decided to, well, she convinced her husband that

25:21 she needed to go to a conference to stay, you know, involved in

25:24 this, in the industry that she was working in.

25:27 And I think she said to him she was going to Switzerland for a

25:30 conference, but it turns out she'd went to Paris instead.

25:34 And A and friends saw her in Paris.

25:36 I mean, how freakish that you come up and walk, you know, all

25:39 across the world like this random place and yeah, friends

25:41 spots, I guess from England to Paris.

25:43 It's not where it was from us that for here in Australia, it

25:45 feels really, you know, like that's so far away.

25:47 Like, yeah. So he's in Paris.

25:50 She's spotted by this friend because she's in Paris

25:53 canoodling with her hairdresser from back in Australia.

25:58 The second Anthony. So the and he's it just happens

26:00 to be the next Anthony. Yeah yeah.

26:02 So yeah. So he's she's big time caught

26:04 because the the friend took photos like it was like obvious

26:07 these two were not there catching up as friends.

26:10 They were canoodling. They were canoodling was the

26:12 word news. So they were making out

26:13 obviously in some cafes. Yeah.

26:17 So. Now Anthony Anthony #2 is an

26:20 interesting character. 10 years her junior, 1111 is that oh oh.

26:24 Scandal but people thought that he was her son, his yeah, not

26:30 her husband in a. Boyfriend in your boyfriend

26:33 Yeah, yeah. So basically when Anthony number

26:37 one or Tony number one got caught winged, so the friend

26:41 contacted him and was like, oh, and it turns out that friend's

26:45 wife Melissa had actually confided in the wife that she'd

26:48 been cheating on. Oh wow.

26:50 Tony with Anthony. Wow.

26:52 Yeah. Oh, God.

26:53 And so he was like, no, enough's enough.

26:55 We've seen it out in the open. Now it's time for you to to, you

26:59 know, face the music, so to speak.

27:01 Yeah. So when Melissa gets home back

27:05 to London or back to Essex from this work trip, he confronts her

27:10 about it and decides to go. And, you know, they have a bit

27:13 of a fight. She never admits to it even

27:16 though he's got proof. She just sort of manipulates the

27:21 situation. Anyway, he decides to go and

27:24 stay, I think with his family for a few days.

27:26 And in that time she basically starts creating this sob story

27:32 though. So she's contacted her brother

27:34 in Australia and said that that Tony number one is abusive, he's

27:40 controlling, she's not allowed to do anything and really builds

27:44 up the fact that he's a not has not been a nice husband.

27:48 Yeah. So her brother flies as soon

27:50 like straight away over to London to get her back, get

27:54 around to Australia and get her out of this abusive environment.

27:58 And lo and behold, she cleared out everything.

28:02 She cleared out their bank accounts, She took all of the

28:04 jewelry. She even took like cutlery and

28:08 random stuff like that. God, yeah, yeah, just a mess

28:13 with him it. Makes no sense.

28:15 Anyway, she basically brings their son home to Australia as

28:20 well and completely cuts. Contact to the point she changed

28:24 the phone number her so Tony number one's back in in England

28:28 unable to contact his child. Yes.

28:31 So he actually comes over to Australia to and knocks on their

28:35 door and he's like, I need to see my son.

28:38 He kind of then in this story, pretty much fades into the

28:41 background. Yeah, you don't get much of like

28:44 that and know what goes on there, which you know, we don't

28:46 need to. Absolutely.

28:47 But I think it's worth noting that it has come out that he was

28:50 none of the things that Melissa accused him of being.

28:53 He wasn't controlling, he wasn't abusive.

28:55 He confronted her because she'd done something wrong and that

28:59 made him a monster in her eyes. Yeah, but she, and this is the

29:01 story she continued to tell to everyone.

29:03 Yep. And everyone felt a lot of

29:05 empathy for her in this situation where, you know, as

29:08 the story that she was telling that she was being abused and.

29:10 Because he believed the person who's being abused, that's why.

29:14 Yeah, as we should. As we should.

29:16 There are very few women out there who lie about this stuff,

29:19 and this woman is definitely one out of the bag.

29:21 Like, she absolutely. Is it how her lie that

29:24 tarnishes, you know, reputations and stories for Yeah, for other

29:29 women who are actually experiencing these?

29:31 100%. Yeah, shame on her.

29:34 Shame on her in so many ways. Oh, well, this is it.

29:35 It's just it's her character in general.

29:37 And once she realized what she really who she really was,

29:40 because I mean, she put across to everyone and like you listen

29:44 to family and friends about her as a person, they all thought

29:47 she was lovely and bubbly and fun and that she was just this

29:51 really nice person. And she was not like there was

29:55 just nothing about her that was likable.

29:57 She was under the surface. She was just, she all she cared

30:00 about was herself in the inquest, which I know I'm sort

30:04 of skipping ahead a bit here, but there was a psychologist who

30:09 took the stand at the inquest. Yeah.

30:11 And she said that Melissa without being able to formally

30:14 diagnose her. But Melissa displayed all the

30:18 signs of having a narcissistic personality disorder.

30:22 Sociopathic narcissist, yeah is what Yeah, I basically said she

30:26 would be if they could sit her down.

30:28 From all accounts of friends, family, of what everyone

30:31 described and the actions that they know she took, this is

30:34 that's the, that's the way they could diagnose her was Yeah,

30:37 yeah. Oh yeah.

30:38 And she really, really and truly was.

30:41 Yeah. So we now get to her

30:44 relationship with Anthony Coletti.

30:46 Well, isn't he an interesting character?

30:48 So he was her hairdresser when he sort of established, you

30:52 know, more established his relationship with her.

30:56 He was no longer really hairdressing.

30:59 He'd do some clients I think part time.

31:01 He also did prawn breeding. Yeah, yeah, I looked into all

31:07 these. And prawn breeding.

31:10 Interesting one. And he, oh, I mean his passion,

31:13 his life's work, Deejaying. Yeah, please do yourselves a

31:16 favour and jump on Spotify and look up Pause off Paws as in

31:23 animal Paws Paws Paws Off is his music and you'll find his album

31:31 there. Yep, so worth a listen.

31:34 It is. It is fantastic.

31:36 I mean, I don't really want to give this guy any more of my

31:39 money, but I mean, look. I don't think he's making any

31:41 money out of the views he's getting on Spotify.

31:47 The album title is Raid, and that is my favorite song on the

31:52 whole on the album. Yeah, it's a bit of a spoken

31:56 word, like lyrics. I'm just going to read you a

32:00 couple of my favorite. Please yes, bring it.

32:03 A young lady from a large corporation that tortured a lady

32:06 for 14 hours. The rhyming just gets me.

32:12 Might get a snake or a rat and call it Isabella.

32:15 I'll buy the ugliest thing I can find.

32:17 So Isabella, Isabella Ellen was the ASIC lead investigator,

32:25 Yeah, lead investigator who ended up.

32:27 Taking out an Ivo against him because he was that horrific.

32:31 Yeah, yeah. So they're married, they've

32:34 bought this, you know, property in Dover Heights.

32:37 They're living the high life. He's got a 400 odd $1000 sports

32:41 car. She's buying these extravagant.

32:43 He is living the life because he he genuinely thinks, I think he

32:49 genuinely thinks that it's all legitimate and that she's this

32:52 incredible financial wizard and she's got all this money and she

32:59 really controlled him. At the end of the day,

33:02 unbeknownst to him, he was in an abusive relationship.

33:05 Yeah, I mean, he's certainly met a need for her and and she had a

33:10 lot of control over him and she. Had all the control.

33:13 I think that actually plays a lot into his actions after Oh

33:17 yeah, Melissa's disappearance. But we'll we'll get to that in a

33:20 second. So they're living this lovely

33:23 life. Things are going really, really

33:26 well. And what happens?

33:28 I think it was let me just get my I need to make sure on the

33:33 early in the early hours of the 11th of November who knocks on

33:37 their door at like 5:30 in the morning.

33:39 Well, no. Wasn't 5:30 in the morning?

33:41 Well, according to according to Anthony, it was 5:30 in the

33:44 morning. According to ASIC it was more

33:46 like 630. Oh, really?

33:47 Yeah. OK, Yeah, yeah, OK.

33:50 Well. Because ASIC even say like we

33:51 have to be careful about overtime hours and so we would

33:54 be knocking on the door at 5:30 in the morning for overtime

33:57 hours. So I love that because he just,

33:58 he really ramps it up in those songs about how bad that.

34:01 Rate. I reckon that's where I got my

34:02 530 from. Actually, totally not from the

34:04 song. Yes, from the song.

34:07 I really need to check my sources.

34:10 They had a warrant to search and seize any proceeds of crime.

34:17 Yeah, essentially the crimes that Melissa had committed.

34:19 So they've been working on this case for months and months and

34:23 months in the lead up to this day.

34:26 Yeah. There's question whether or not

34:29 Melissa caught wind potentially of the fact that ASIC were

34:33 looking into her. So there there was a really

34:36 interesting thing that happened maybe about a month before the

34:40 raid, a pure and utter chance. So when Melissa would go to

34:46 Aspen, she would try and recruit clients over there because

34:48 obviously people who are in those situations rich, you know,

34:52 they've got lots of money. And she actually was able to

34:55 recruit a client in, in Aspen, an Australian woman who chose to

35:00 invest two and a half million dollars of her money with

35:03 Melissa. And this, that woman was then

35:07 sitting in a dentist's office waiting to have a teeth cleaning

35:10 done. And she was sitting next to a

35:13 woman in the in the waiting room.

35:16 And they got chatting. I'm not even sure what sparked

35:19 the conversation, but they got chatting and they discovered.

35:23 So the woman, the other woman, not the Aspen woman, the other

35:26 one sitting in the chair, she was the woman whose license

35:30 Melissa was using to trade Rachel.

35:33 Yeah, right. To trade.

35:35 Like she obviously needed a, an accreditation number in order to

35:39 do some of the not even legitimate.

35:42 She'd borrowed this woman's number to put on the, on the

35:46 paperwork, paperwork that she was already forging.

35:49 And this woman knew about it. But I, I don't, I never, I

35:52 couldn't find anything about whether she'd gone to ASIC or

35:56 whether she was the informant. They believe that Rachel was the

35:59 informant was at least one of the informants because so I

36:03 believe there was a phone call from Melissa to this Rachel

36:06 asking can I just borrow your number at one stage.

36:09 What? Yeah, yeah.

36:09 To which Rachel was like, no, that's fully illegal.

36:12 You can't do that, which I think then triggered for this Rachel.

36:17 Well, hang on a second. Has she done this before and I

36:20 so I do believe that Rachel hat was one of the informants and

36:24 rang asset going. I think my numbers being used

36:27 inappropriately. Yeah.

36:28 So I think that's what triggered it back further.

36:30 OK And the other one was a doctor in Perth.

36:33 Yeah yeah. So there was some doctors,

36:36 somehow she managed to get infiltrate some doctors in Perth

36:38 Earth and one of the doctors that he was like, Yep, Keane as

36:41 I want to invest. $4 million. You have a fair bit of money,

36:44 but just so happens his wife was an accountant.

36:46 So no, not a financial advisor, completely different job.

36:49 But being an accountant, she was a bit more savvy and she wanted

36:54 to ask questions like what's the number?

36:56 What's her financial advisor number?

36:58 What's, you know, how's this being invested in things and

37:00 these questions where they're not being able to be answered

37:02 properly, that this accountant then I believe also was an

37:05 informant. Yeah, potentially.

37:07 But Melissa Cook, because they started asking Melissa all these

37:10 questions, she literally gave them their money back without

37:13 any. Questions.

37:14 All of a sudden it was like, oh, actually I can't.

37:16 I actually can't help you. I can't help.

37:18 You, yeah. So I think that also raised a

37:20 red flag for them to work. You can't just pull that money

37:23 out without our signatures like you should have.

37:27 You shouldn't have been able to do that.

37:28 So that obviously got them. So the Rachel in the dentist's

37:33 office said to this lady from that Melissa had met in Aspen,

37:36 take your money out Now there's something going on.

37:39 This is not legitimate. And so she rings Melissa and

37:43 she's like, oh, Melissa, I've actually, she fabricated as in,

37:46 yeah, she fabricated this story. But she said, oh, I found a

37:49 house that I want to buy, and can I please have my money back,

37:52 You know? And by all accounts, at this

37:55 point, Melissa had told her that she'd made $300,000 return on

38:00 her investment at that point. So, you know, by all accounts,

38:04 she should have $2.8 million now in in her fund.

38:08 And Melissa's like, oh, no, you know, property is not a good

38:12 investment. This is not a good idea.

38:14 I strongly advise against it. And she really stood a ground.

38:17 She was like, no, no, I want my money.

38:19 Yeah, I think she's the only one.

38:21 And the Perth, the Perth Doctor, yeah, who were able to actually

38:24 get out before the right before, yeah.

38:27 There were certain ones that legitimately like retired and

38:29 one of their supers paid out and things like that, which she

38:32 like, this is the thing with a Ponzi scheme, which is what this

38:34 was. Yeah.

38:35 Which is basically a fancy word for robbing Peter to pay Paul.

38:38 Yeah. She would legit like just take

38:40 this money off people and use it for herself to pay for what she

38:43 wanted to live on and do where. And so this this money was not

38:46 being invested how they were expecting it to be invested.

38:49 But so she would have to then like basically go, this person

38:51 would come to her and say, yeah, look, I'm ready to retire.

38:53 I'd like to pull out my money. And she would then have to

38:55 scrounge and try and pull all this money together.

38:58 And actually, there's a few people that got their money back

39:00 by doing that. But that legit that that's just

39:02 meant that she then had to go and find another client to

39:05 replace what least more than one?

39:06 You know, that's why she built from going, you know, I only

39:09 have 15 clients at a time to this sixty that she ended up

39:12 with at the time of the when they when she was found out

39:15 because she was like, we'll need more.

39:17 I need, I need more money. So I've got to get more

39:19 investors. Yeah.

39:20 Insane. Oh.

39:22 Insane. Yeah.

39:22 So she ended up giving the $2.8 million back.

39:25 So she's down 300 grand, would you be?

39:28 Great, grateful that you got a bit of a tip off to get out but.

39:31 Yeah, not everybody was so lucky, no.

39:34 So the raid happens and ASIC, so they turn up with the AFP, the

39:39 Australian Federal Police and they are allowed to seize

39:44 anything that was purchased with investor funds.

39:48 And so they have gone and they've taken all of her

39:50 designer clothing, all of her jewellery.

39:53 They were she wedding dress. There was Oh yeah, for one piece

39:57 of jewellery, a lot of them were worth, you know, hundred 100,000

40:01 here, 200,000 there. Yeah.

40:04 All this, all these designer clothes, they took her laptops,

40:08 they took anything hard. Drives of CCTV that was around

40:12 the house unfortunately. Yeah, yeah, they took anything

40:16 of value in the house. Yeah, watches galore.

40:20 Raid or Yeah, the raid and seizure took about 14 hours I

40:24 believe. So they were there for a really

40:25 long time. ASIC put out a report at the end

40:30 of all of this and basically, I mean, they were wearing yeah,

40:36 body recording devices. So we know a lot about what

40:40 happened in that day. Apparently Melissa at certain

40:44 point. So.

40:45 So it was later claimed that they denied her food and water.

40:48 And which was not Pause off's music.

40:51 Oh. My God, I think Anthony was

40:53 really put out by the fact that they took so much of their

40:58 personal items as well. Well.

41:01 Yeah. He was like convinced that this

41:03 was all legit, that this money was hit theirs and, you know,

41:06 well, his and that they shouldn't have been taking

41:09 anything. Yeah.

41:10 They took his sports card to. That really upsetting.

41:14 He did. He didn't like that, No.

41:16 So you can imagine going through this, whether I mean, Melissa

41:19 obviously knows she's guilty. Anthony doesn't.

41:23 What I find that interesting with the body Cam footage, the

41:25 bits that you do get to have been able to see the way her,

41:28 like her body language, etcetera, you could say she was

41:31 terrified. Yeah.

41:32 And she knew she'd been caught and she was done.

41:34 Yeah. Which speaks to a lot for what

41:37 came next, I think. Yeah, I think.

41:38 So, yeah, yeah, so the end of, you know, ASIC have gone.

41:44 They've basically said to her, so I think this happened on a

41:46 Wednesday, Yeah, they said to her that she needed to appear in

41:50 court on the Friday morning. Now this is in 2020 COVID time.

41:55 November of 2020. So we'll yeah, Melbourne

41:58 probably still in a lockdown. Yep, no doubt, No doubt.

42:01 But she had to appear via video link because court wasn't

42:04 sitting face to face still at that point.

42:06 Yeah, basically what happened in that interim time.

42:10 So ASIC leaves her house. I think it was about 5:00 in the

42:13 afternoon. They've taken everything.

42:16 They don't have much left at all.

42:18 Apparently they had take away for dinner her and her son and

42:21 Anthony and then. Well, I think that her phone was

42:24 able, it was being able to be tracked from that point.

42:26 And they said that she Google searched Uber Eats of where to

42:29 where to get dinner and a lawyer.

42:31 Yeah, which I mean, I wasn't able to get an answer on this.

42:34 So during the raid, to me, first and foremost would be I'll call

42:38 my lawyer, lawyer. And to me, someone who, I mean,

42:40 this is a game where it undoes her a little bit.

42:42 Someone who is operating with a business that is that many

42:45 hundreds of thousands dollars, millions of dollars.

42:48 Surely you have a lawyer. If you don't have a lawyer, you

42:51 surely have someone who knows someone who knows someone who

42:54 knows someone who would be like, I'll get you onto this person.

42:58 I'm shocked that she didn't call a lawyer whilst there was police

43:01 there. But what was She had said to the

43:03 lawyer? Well, to me, a lawyer would have

43:05 been able to rock up and at least advise her.

43:08 Don't say any more. Or you know, like 100% she

43:11 should have had a lawyer with her that day.

43:13 Yeah, from what we get. And then, look, I mean, maybe

43:17 we're not getting everything. And maybe maybe Anthony's

43:18 correct in this that he needs the music.

43:20 How He says that We weren't even allowed to get a lawyer.

43:23 I'm. Well, that's not legal.

43:25 I'm fairly certain that the one person who could have walked

43:27 through that door that day to support that situation would

43:30 have been a lawyer. Yeah.

43:31 To wait until they've left before she starts Google

43:33 searching. A lawyer.

43:35 I would have been Google searching.

43:36 I would have been on the phone. Who do I need to get to?

43:39 Like, whether you're guilty or innocent, like whatever, like,

43:41 you know, where's, where's lawyer?

43:43 I need a lawyer. Yep.

43:45 Yep. But wouldn't you have done that

43:46 at 6:30 in the morning, 7:00 in the morning?

43:49 You wouldn't have waited all day, but I feel.

43:50 No, she just. Apparently, at one point she

43:52 even went and laid down on the bed during the race.

43:54 She. She.

43:55 Did seem to just she sort of just.

43:56 Shut down, I reckon. Yeah, yeah, thinking.

43:59 Because the other thing that gets me is that Anthony says

44:02 that that evening after they've all left.

44:04 OK, well and how would you react if if people just come through

44:08 your house and raided the whole place, I would have had a

44:10 million and one questions for my partner going, you know, like

44:12 right. What the actual happened?

44:15 Yeah. He never asked her a thing.

44:17 No, in fact, he said quote UN quote, we had a normal night.

44:22 Sorry, what we? Cuddled to go to sleep?

44:25 Yep, she just needed me to cuddle.

44:26 Her she had a bath and we just I cuddled her to sleep.

44:29 What? I would have been like, whoa,

44:33 the the questions could not have come thick enough, but I think

44:36 this. I think this plays into her

44:37 control over here. Like he didn't feel like he

44:40 could ask questions of. Her and that's how he has

44:43 absolutely no understanding no of the control and abuse that

44:47 was being done to him. Yeah, he is still under that

44:50 spell. Yes.

44:51 Of I have no power here. I'm not to speak and I'm not to

44:54 ask questions. This is for her to sort out.

44:56 Yeah, man. Oh, it's it's mind blowing.

44:58 Yeah. So they go to bed around

45:00 midnight, 5:30. This one legit is 530 because

45:04 her son attests to the fact that he heard the front door closing

45:09 at around that. Time he did a question mark on

45:10 that. Is there?

45:12 Because the gym was on the third floor.

45:14 Yep. And they said that the distance

45:18 between the the gym and the front door, you wouldn't hear

45:21 the click of the door. Oh, OK, but her son was in bed.

45:26 No, he, I think he said he was in the gym, he was working out

45:28 or something. Oh, OK.

45:29 Yeah, But even then, even from his bedroom, which it was all

45:31 that was like wherever he was, it was on the third floor of the

45:34 house. OK.

45:35 I mean, this place was pretty massive and it had this

45:38 incredible view from the rooftop to the Sydney Harbour.

45:41 Stunning. But yeah, he was on the third

45:43 floor and the obviously to the door.

45:46 They questioned whether or not he actually could have heard the

45:48 door click. OK.

45:50 All right. OK.

45:51 So she's left at some point in the morning.

45:53 Yeah, she's left behind her phone, wallet, keys she has

45:57 taken. She was meant to be meeting a

46:00 friend to go for a run. She had a personal trainer that

46:03 was also invested in her with with her business and lost a lot

46:07 of money. And she was meant to be meeting

46:08 her to go for a run. And she didn't text message her

46:12 during the morning. Yeah, to say I won't be able to

46:14 meet today. And then, yeah, so.

46:15 But no one's seen or heard of her.

46:17 From her since. Since.

46:19 She's gone missing, so she's gone out.

46:21 She's got nothing with her. Anthony just stays at home all

46:25 day waiting for her. Doesn't come ring.

46:28 Anybody doesn't do anything. He literally does nothing.

46:32 Literally what would he have actually done?

46:34 I don't even think they had a TV.

46:35 Well. I mean that's the thing, he was

46:38 complaining that they had access to no money.

46:40 Like he couldn't even buy food. They had an $800 a week

46:44 allowance. Was that from?

46:46 Immediately, immediately right as it gave them pretty decent, I

46:49 know. Better than settling.

46:51 Yeah. Now in the lead up to this,

46:53 Melissa had done a few things which I've, you know, I guess

46:56 are suspicious. Yeah, she paid 6 months worth of

47:00 their mortgage repayments upfront, whereas she'd been

47:04 paying monthly before that. Asked Anthony to help her get a

47:09 shredder. A shredder, like an industrial

47:12 $3000 shredding machine. That was sort of, yeah, that was

47:16 building up the months prior, wasn't it, I?

47:18 Think in the July. Yeah, yeah.

47:19 So that was a, that was sort of a little bit of a indicator of

47:21 that. She might have had wind of

47:23 something with us. Something was going on, Yeah.

47:25 The other thing she did was she deleted all of her social media

47:29 profiles. That's right, Yes, she did.

47:33 And Facebook or Instagram? Facebook, Instagram so that I'm

47:36 guessing so she couldn't be traced.

47:39 I reckon more so like that she knew this was gonna be big news

47:43 and people couldn't. Tag her or contact.

47:45 Her find her, like in terms of, you know, finding information

47:48 about her from the media and that sort of thing and go

47:50 searching for her photos and yeah, yeah.

47:52 So she she's, there's been knowledge that something was

47:55 coming. Yeah.

47:57 Whether it was just, you know, like, I mean, these things can't

47:59 go on forever. There's got like, seriously,

48:01 how, how long do you think you can keep this up for?

48:03 And from what people said about her too, that she was a very

48:06 stressed person. It was very stressful for her to

48:09 run this Ponzi scheme, you know, and earn all this.

48:11 Money, get all these poor diddums.

48:13 But yeah, so she wasn't in a good way.

48:15 She was pretty stressed out and agitated.

48:17 And maybe she just knew that this was.

48:19 There's gotta be an end. Yeah, I don't know.

48:21 Yeah. But or or she'd been tipped off

48:23 in some way that. Yeah, so she's missing for a day

48:28 the next morning. So she's missing.

48:30 The ASIC raid happened Wednesday.

48:32 Missing all day Thursday, Anthony.

48:34 Like, this is what gets me. He's gone to bed Thursday night.

48:37 She still hasn't come home to get any of her things.

48:40 She's still missing. What does he do?

48:42 Oh, this is the best. This is actually the best.

48:45 Before going to bed on Thursday night, what does he do?

48:47 Mega. No, you go.

48:48 No, you go. Go, go, go, go.

48:50 He gets in his car and he plays her favorite music that he's

48:55 created on loudspeaker. He winds down his windows and he

49:00 drives around Dover Heights, hoping that his music will

49:03 attract her back to him or. If he didn't really do that.

49:07 Well, look, I think there's in the inquest, it actually, this

49:11 is his story. This is what he told police that

49:13 he did. Yeah, but in the inquest it

49:15 actually came out because they were able to track his phone and

49:18 his movement. Yeah, he didn't actually do

49:20 that. But I love that.

49:21 I love that that's his story. Oh, then he thought that was

49:24 like, really? I don't know that people would

49:25 be like, oh, he's so beautiful. But what he actually did was he

49:31 went around to a friend's place, smoked a joint and went back

49:35 home. He did not disclose to this

49:38 friend that Melissa was missing. He did not disclose to this

49:41 friend that they'd been raided the day before.

49:44 So this friend just thought, Oh yeah, he's just come over for a

49:46 regular Thursday night. Yep, wouldn't you be like, mate,

49:49 you wouldn't be. What's what's been going on?

49:51 Like my wife's missing. Don't you think he'd want to

49:53 tell someone something? Oh, I mean, because I do OK.

49:58 The situation he was in, I fully think that he was in a situation

50:02 where he was like, I don't want to do anything because I think

50:04 I'll get into trouble, I'll do the wrong thing.

50:06 I do get that perspective. And there was another thing he

50:08 did say that I'll agree with him.

50:10 There is an you sort of think with an adult going missing, you

50:14 have to wait 24 hours before you can report them missing.

50:17 However, in this situation with an ASIC raid on their house,

50:22 think it's kind of important that you disclose that she's

50:25 not, she's missing immediately. But not only that, yeah.

50:29 Because the situation that we're in, it's highly volatile, like

50:33 what she would do. You want to be able to protect

50:35 her and look after her and make sure she's OK like if nothing

50:38 else. Yeah.

50:39 Do you think it's still a widely like thought out thing that

50:42 people think you have to wait 24 hours to report someone missing?

50:45 Personally, if there was an adult, child, whatever missing,

50:48 I would do it immediately. Immediately.

50:49 And even if those cops turned to me and said come back in 24

50:52 hours, I'd be right. I'd be like.

50:54 I don't think in this day and age they would do that, no,

50:56 because in 24 hours they're losing a lot of a lot of

51:00 potential information. In this situation, 100% they

51:04 wouldn't have been. Go away and wait 24 hours.

51:06 Yeah, 100%. Once they'd realized who she was

51:08 and what was going on, they would have looked into it.

51:11 Having said that, when he reported her missing, so OK, the

51:14 next morning, Friday morning, she's meant to attend court via

51:17 video link. The video link pops up and it's

51:20 Anthony's face. So they've got the ASIC

51:23 investigators there and the, the, the judge from the court

51:26 for the court hearing, Anthony pops up and they're like,

51:29 where's Melissa? And he goes, she's not here.

51:32 And like, well, where is she? And he goes he.

51:33 Was out. He wanted to know if she was on

51:35 the link. Yeah.

51:35 She was like, is she here? Yeah.

51:37 Oh, she's not here. Oh well, I haven't seen her

51:40 since two nights before. Because this again what what

51:43 gets me in this right. So that court hearing happened

51:46 and there's obviously Asic's lawyer on the call and there's

51:50 AK is on the screen on his little logo and there's no one

51:53 else. So the the court not

51:55 understanding sort of, you know, who's present and they do that.

51:58 They call you and say, you know, is someone here representing,

52:00 you know, the the respondent and then, you know, this sort of

52:03 thing and like and they're like, oh, we believe there is someone

52:05 here AK like and because they're thinking this could be her

52:09 lawyer, but it's not It's Anthony.

52:13 Anthony And he's like, oh what? Melissa's not here.

52:16 And they're like, no, like where is she?

52:19 And he? He goes, well, I don't know.

52:20 And they're like, well, have you reported her missing?

52:22 And he goes no. No.

52:24 So he's they're just to adjourn the court hearing.

52:25 Yeah. Because they're like, you need

52:27 to go to the cops, you need to report that she's.

52:29 But he still takes I think 6 hours after that until he

52:33 actually calls the police. And then so he called he he goes

52:37 down to Bondi, yeah, police station to report her missing,

52:41 right? They then say to him, we need to

52:44 interview you. And he goes, no, no.

52:46 Thanks. I did not know that he refused

52:47 to be interviewed. Yeah, so because he'd be shit

52:49 scared, he'd say something. Wrong.

52:50 Yep. So they then go back to his

52:52 house because they're like, well, we need to see, yeah, some

52:54 evidence, have a look. And they walk in and they're

52:56 like, where's all that stuff? Yeah, like, what's going on?

53:00 And then they see on the table that the ASIC, all the warrant.

53:05 The warrant. Yeah, all of the the stuff.

53:08 And they're like, whoa, whoa. And these were uniformed police

53:11 officers who did this initial search.

53:13 Body cams on them too. Yeah, they've then escalated

53:17 that to a more senior officer. They immediately were like, he's

53:22 potentially done something here too.

53:23 That's what they think. Yeah, their immediate instinct,

53:26 there's three of the three of them all had the same instinct

53:28 that I will. It's he's got something to do

53:30 with their disappearance. Yeah, it was that dodgy like

53:32 what he was, how he was reacting and his.

53:35 Story is really weird and he's really evasive with them.

53:39 So they escalate it to a Sergeant named Trent Riley and

53:43 you can watch his body Cam footage as well when he then

53:45 comes to the house. So I think he spoke to Tony on

53:49 the phone and then he's come to the house as well to further the

53:52 investigation or to figure out exactly what's going on.

53:56 And he says to Anthony, mate, I'm really concerned here like

53:59 this is this is really unusual what's happened, what's

54:03 happened? And he's like, oh, I can't give

54:04 you any information about that. I can't tell you anything about

54:07 that. Yeah, he.

54:09 He won't. It's like he's not being

54:11 cooperative. And then when they challenge him

54:13 and say you're not being cooperative, he's like, no, no,

54:16 I'll do whatever it takes, whatever it takes, I'll help

54:19 you. And they're like, OK, so when

54:20 did you last see Melissa? And he's like, oh, yeah.

54:24 Well, it was the night before last.

54:25 And they're like, well, that's not what you told us when you

54:28 originally reported her missing. You told us you'd seen her in

54:30 the morning. And yeah.

54:32 His story just never added up. No, in the inquest, The judge

54:35 actually, sorry, the coroner at the inquest actually called him

54:40 on all this and said we can't actually really take your

54:43 account for what it's worth because yet take it into account

54:47 because. It chops and changes.

54:48 It's too much. And there's so many different

54:50 versions of events. Yeah.

54:52 He was an unreliable witness. I genuinely think though that

54:56 that was just him being him. As in like, I think he's a

54:59 sandwich short of a picnic. Oh 100% I don't know, just

55:03 listen. Listen purposefully being

55:04 evasive. So, so he when he filled out

55:08 this is this will just give you a bit of an idea as to exactly

55:10 how his mind works. When he was filling out the

55:13 missing persons report for Melissa at the police station

55:17 when he first did it, they get you to fill out what, what was

55:19 she last wearing? And so it's like she was wearing

55:22 activewear. She was wearing these ASICS

55:23 shoes. Or he wrote Nike, but yeah.

55:25 Oh, he did write Nike, actually, that's right.

55:27 But she was actually wearing ASICS.

55:29 We know that for sure later. And then there's a section to

55:33 write what underwear she was wearing and he wrote Grandma.

55:37 No, he did not. Oh my God, that you got into

55:42 trouble for Anthony. So the other thing is like the

55:46 when the police ask her, ask him like, why do you think she's

55:49 gone missing? This is before they knew all of

55:51 the ASIC stuff. He goes Oh no reason I have.

55:53 I have no idea why she would have gone missing.

55:57 Yeah, she's got no reason to disappear right now.

55:59 There's nothing going on in our lives.

56:01 We're just regular millionaires. Yep, Yep.

56:05 Apparently he was quite sweaty when they asked him questions

56:08 too. Like he was getting really

56:09 worked up. Like he couldn't, he couldn't,

56:14 he couldn't. Like, I don't know, he was so on

56:17 edge and. Obviously he was going to get in

56:19 trouble with Melissa. So 100 days after Melissa went

56:26 missing, was it 400 kilometers 400?

56:28 Kilometers down the coast, yeah, yeah.

56:30 There are some kids walking along the beach.

56:33 Yeah, a very secluded beach by all accounts.

56:35 Yeah. And they discover a shoe.

56:40 And inside that shoe is, and it was obviously forensically

56:45 tested and it was proven to be Melissa's foot.

56:49 Now the foot was so degraded that they can't actually tell

56:53 how the foot was severed from the leg.

56:57 So they don't know whether it was a shark bite or whether it

57:00 was sawn off, that the bone was too degraded to be able to

57:03 actually make that determination.

57:05 So nobody actually knows to this day what has happened to Melissa

57:10 or even that she's 100% dead. No.

57:12 Well, the coroner did in 2023 declare that she's dead.

57:16 Yeah, but and also said, but couldn't decide how.

57:20 The manner of death is still death.

57:22 Yeah, yeah. Open but still, yeah.

57:24 Everyone, I mean the people who knew her very well all say she

57:30 would have categorically had a Plan B.

57:32 Yep. Which then opens up, I mean,

57:35 there's these people who genuinely knew her, are not

57:37 convinced that she wouldn't have cut her own foot off and found a

57:41 way of getting back, you know, climbing back and getting her

57:44 money back. Yeah.

57:45 I just, I don't know. What do you think?

57:48 Look, the narcissist that she was and what I know of

57:51 narcissist, I struggle with the thought that she's topped

57:55 herself, that I don't know that, that that just doesn't seem

58:00 right to me. The thought of her being

58:02 murdered, I have looked and I've gone down a few rabbit holes on

58:05 this of like, OK, so if it's if she was, if there's foul play

58:08 here, who would that have been? And if so, you think, OK, so

58:13 there's got to be someone helping her in this financial

58:15 situation of like stealing all this money potentially were

58:17 other people involved and didn't want their names coming out?

58:20 So I can understand that maybe there was someone there who

58:22 potentially could have murdered her, but I got in all these

58:25 rabbit holes and there's no one, there isn't anyone that sticks

58:28 out. There's one guy who was an

58:30 accountant that she had in Brisbane who was being put in

58:33 jail for fraudulent financial matters previously.

58:37 But don't think so from what I can research on him well.

58:42 I don't think, I think they they looked down that.

58:45 Yeah, it's been pretty he. Was out, he was not in.

58:48 Like he couldn't have been in New South.

58:49 Wales. Not at the time, no.

58:51 So there's look, there's much. So that kind of, I feel like

58:55 that's a dead end too. So then the only other than

58:58 option is that she is still alive and out there and has gone

59:01 on the run. I mean, she did have flying

59:03 lessons and the people have talked about maybe she jumped,

59:05 she got on a plane and flew herself somewhere or she's got

59:09 on a yacht, which is plenty of those, you know, fairly

59:11 accessible. And but they've looked at

59:12 marinas and they've looked at CCTV.

59:15 No one has. Found anything or?

59:17 The thing that gets me the most out of all this mystery and it

59:21 is going to be a mystery forever I believe for this.

59:24 So her CCTV footage of her from her house was turned off because

59:29 they took all the hard drives. So her walking out of her front

59:32 door is not on any footage? Absolutely.

59:35 But in that area there was CCTV footage being from other houses

59:41 in their St. and other areas around.

59:43 So they've gone, the police have gone and got all that footage.

59:46 She's nowhere to be seen. So if she walked somewhere or

59:50 drove her car somewhere, it would have been picked up on

59:54 CCTV and it was not. So the only other option then is

59:57 that she was picked up by somebody and then we don't know

1:00:00 what that vehicle looks like to know that she'd be in that car

1:00:02 on the CCTV footage. So it's a that gets me.

1:00:06 Where did she go from walking out her front door?

1:00:09 Did she walk out her front door? Like how that gets me.

1:00:12 Agreed. But at the end of that, I think

1:00:14 if her foot's rocked up, she's not hopping around somewhere.

1:00:17 No, I think I think she's dead. I do, I think I just don't know

1:00:21 how. And I agree with you in that

1:00:24 given her narcissistic traits, the fact I find it hard to come

1:00:28 out that she would have killed herself, Although if she was so

1:00:32 like this has tarnished her reputation so bad that she

1:00:35 thought there's no way I'm ever coming back from this.

1:00:37 Yeah, maybe that would have pushed her over the edge to go

1:00:40 down you. Look at her in that, that

1:00:41 footage from, as we were saying from the from the raid.

1:00:43 Yeah, she looks pretty stressed and she knows, like her, it's

1:00:48 all coming crashing down. She doesn't want to have to face

1:00:50 the music. Yeah.

1:00:52 Yeah, I don't think. She'll ever know popping.

1:00:53 Around some island living a life I really don't.

1:00:55 I think she's dead. And the thought of her being

1:00:57 able to manage like a, you know, OK, she's gone, maybe she's gone

1:01:00 somewhere and had someone surgically removed the foot and

1:01:04 have a prosthetic and recover from that.

1:01:07 You know, So when you think about the number of people she

1:01:09 would have would have to be in on this to have and then to have

1:01:11 dropped the foot in the ocean and you know what I mean, like

1:01:14 to actually. And to have it found, yeah,

1:01:16 yeah. And to have it so degraded and

1:01:18 they found like lots of marine microorganisms like in the

1:01:22 tissue, which they can prove they they're pretty sure they

1:01:25 can date it to almost 100 days that had a bit that the foot had

1:01:28 been in the ocean. I mean, she's, you're not

1:01:30 chopping off a foot and then dropping it the same day.

1:01:32 You know, it's going to take time to recover to have your

1:01:34 prosthetic, prosthetic leg foot attached, you know, and all

1:01:37 these sorts of things. Like I just the thought of all

1:01:39 that doesn't really make sense to me at all.

1:01:41 Saying that. So I think she's dead.

1:01:43 Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

1:01:46 But I mean then that now there's left the situation of twenty $25

1:01:51 million has been stolen from about 60 odd people and it's

1:01:57 getting that money back to, you know, or trying to get back some

1:01:59 of that money to these people. There was an Ave. that we're I

1:02:02 was looking at that with self managed super funds.

1:02:06 There is a process in this to regulate it in terms of they've

1:02:10 got to audit it every 12 months. So she had other people helping

1:02:14 her in this situation. And so the auditors that she was

1:02:17 using to look at these, a question is, as a person who's

1:02:21 investing all that amount of money, why are you not having

1:02:24 your audited independently? She, I think, was offering up an

1:02:28 independent auditor who did this process.

1:02:31 So I think they're a bit liable because they didn't pick up any

1:02:33 of this stuff. There wasn't a red flag put out

1:02:36 there at all. Yeah, and biggest red flag of a

1:02:39 simple 6 digit number rather than 8 digit number.

1:02:41 Yes. So they weren't doing their due.

1:02:43 Date there was actually a financial advisor that I found

1:02:46 who said that any good financial advisor, any half decent

1:02:50 financial advisor would can log into the background of these

1:02:53 COMSEC accounts and check on their process, right?

1:02:56 As an auditor, that's what your job is right?

1:02:59 You literally like that is 101 auditing of super super self

1:03:04 managed supers. That was not done by this

1:03:06 company because they would have been logged in and gone.

1:03:09 There's no account. So there's lots of question

1:03:13 marks over where this money, this money isn't just just

1:03:15 Melissa Catix like crime. You know what I mean?

1:03:19 There's other people who have stuffed up here for sure.

1:03:22 I mean, look, we don't we can't all be financial gurus and know

1:03:25 how to, you know, operate our super funds and things.

1:03:28 But to me, if you don't know enough then you shouldn't be

1:03:31 pulling it out of a managed self, but you know out of a fund

1:03:34 that is reputable and handing it over to someone either.

1:03:37 Yeah, without doing your own due diligence and having somebody to

1:03:40 look into it. So ASIC have employed and I

1:03:44 think like the the AFP as well, have employed, employed a

1:03:49 forensic accountant to kind of go through everything and figure

1:03:52 it all out and tease out what was real, which wasn't much and

1:03:56 what wasn't. They were then able to, you

1:03:59 know, they've obviously got a lot of her possessions that were

1:04:02 really valuable. They've been able to, I mean,

1:04:05 all of her jewelry now has gone to auction.

1:04:08 Her clothing has been sold. They've tried to recoup as much

1:04:12 like their houses and their penthouse and all this other

1:04:15 stuff was sold and they've been able to recoup.

1:04:18 I think it was now as of literally two days ago, it is

1:04:23 they've been able to recoup $0.36 to the dollar of, of the

1:04:27 investors money. So they've been looking to try

1:04:30 and recoup as much of this money as possible because these

1:04:34 people, this was their retirement.

1:04:37 They've got nothing left. They're gonna have to work for,

1:04:39 you know, a really long time to try and recoup all of this

1:04:42 money. And so they're now looking into

1:04:45 like, I guess in a way, fraudulent tax payments that

1:04:50 Melissa made under her company Maliva, which were not

1:04:55 legitimate because she never like what she was submitting

1:04:59 wasn't real. So technically, that money that

1:05:02 she's paid to the Ato was for illegitimate payments.

1:05:05 Yeah. And yeah, they.

1:05:07 So the Ato actually owe her estate that money back.

1:05:12 I can't find anywhere. I can't find a dollar amount

1:05:15 anywhere. But apparently it's quite a

1:05:16 significant amount of money. So hopefully that'll give some

1:05:21 more money. Yeah, top it up a bit more.

1:05:22 But I mean, people are still not going to come out on top here,

1:05:25 are they? If they're, if they've already,

1:05:27 how many years later, we're in 2024 now and they've only been

1:05:30 able to recoup $0.36 to the dollar.

1:05:32 I mean, they're not going to be able to get back all of her, you

1:05:35 know, well, first class travel and private jet money and all of

1:05:39 the consumable she's she's purchased so.

1:05:43 Which, like, on that same front, I mean, I in this Anthony is

1:05:47 also collateral damage. Absolutely.

1:05:50 I mean, he didn't ask for this, but at the same time he was

1:05:54 involved with someone who was doing some pretty dodgy shit.

1:05:57 I don't know. I was going to ask you what your

1:05:59 thoughts are on this because there was a Spotlight interview

1:06:01 with him, which, check it out. He got paid 50 grand for that.

1:06:05 Yeah. And I just don't think he should

1:06:07 have been paid because there's so much money being owed to all

1:06:10 these investors that he shouldn't be making money at.

1:06:13 That's too to me for personal time.

1:06:16 Yeah, he should be making money off of that.

1:06:18 No, I, I. The only issue with that is that

1:06:20 he yes, I know this. I'll say he he's take, he's

1:06:24 obviously still looking after a young son of Melissa's and you

1:06:28 know that he is a great stepdad to do that and take and take him

1:06:32 on. Although I believe there's

1:06:33 another, there's still his biological father who also

1:06:36 should have access, but he needs to provide for him.

1:06:40 But he can go out and get work and be, he's a very good

1:06:42 hairdresser. He we worked for Joe Bailey.

1:06:44 Joe Bailey Bailey breeds prawns, prawns.

1:06:47 The prawns have got to be bringing some money.

1:06:48 Oh, and surely that DJ giggle. Bring him in with his. 300 with

1:06:53 his 300 and 2020 views or whatever it is.

1:06:57 Few more after I've been on there.

1:07:01 I've added added to the counter fair bit over the last week

1:07:03 while we've been researching. This really gets me in the mood.

1:07:06 Grab a wine, grab a wine and have a listen to the album.

1:07:10 It's it's comedy gold. I was just saying to Emma before

1:07:15 we started recording that it reminds me of my seven-year old

1:07:17 son who every night makes up a song for me and he so he will

1:07:23 often get out the the iPad and play a song and then he'll sing

1:07:26 to it and make his own music up. That, ladies and gentlemen, is

1:07:29 exactly what this 30 plus year old man, 40 year old man is

1:07:33 creating and and recording. I'm going to put it out there

1:07:36 because I've I've seen Brody's musical styling.

1:07:39 Yes, I'm going to say Brody's way better at it than Anthony

1:07:42 Coletti, hands down. Oh, it's it's.

1:07:45 Pure gold it is. It's great.

1:07:47 It's actually great, yeah. Yeah, man, have we?

1:07:51 Can I just tell you one of the this is another bit of like.

1:07:54 So do you know the name of his breeding company for his?

1:07:56 Prom. Oh no, I don't go slippery

1:07:59 little. Suckers.

1:08:00 What is wrong with that man? Ohh, that's great.

1:08:07 That's too good, too, too good. Alright, well, I guess that

1:08:11 brings us to the end of another episode for for this week.

1:08:15 So quick, so quick, yet you know.

1:08:19 I mean, there's so much more out there on this case, too.

1:08:21 I mean, it's. But, yeah, it's one without a

1:08:23 solid ending. Because it is.

1:08:26 Please tell us what you think. Yeah.

1:08:28 Did she commit, commit suicide? Was she murdered?

1:08:31 Is there something out there that we don't know about?

1:08:33 Or what lovely island is she hopping around on?

1:08:37 Yeah, literally. Literally.

1:08:41 But yeah, just yet another piece of shit though.

1:08:43 Stealing money off people. I just can't stealing.

1:08:46 Money off her friends and family.

1:08:48 That's OK. We haven't even mentioned she

1:08:50 did this to her own parents. Yeah, that's awful.

1:08:54 I really, that's just she she really has dubbed them big time.

1:08:58 They've come out OK, OK in this. Now they've, they've had some

1:09:02 pretty good lawyers themselves and managed to get there,

1:09:04 basically got get pretty much all of their investment back,

1:09:08 but not without the, you know, the, the dividends and things

1:09:12 that they probably would have thought they were getting from

1:09:13 any of this. Yeah.

1:09:14 And they thought they had a place to live for life and now

1:09:16 they don't. That's it.

1:09:17 Yeah. So, yeah.

1:09:19 Believable. Yeah.

1:09:20 All. Right, well, next week we are

1:09:23 going to be investigating and having a chat about the Port

1:09:26 Arthur massacre. That's a really heavy.

1:09:29 It's going to be heavy. Yeah.

1:09:30 That's that's a big one, yeah. So yeah, if you, you know, stay

1:09:34 tuned for that. We'd love to have you back next

1:09:37 week. Any feedback is more than

1:09:40 welcome. DMS on Instagram have a follow

1:09:44 of us over on Tiktok. We welcome any comments.

1:09:48 And you know, if you haven't subscribed already, that is the

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1:09:54 more people. So we'd really appreciate it if

1:09:56 you could. Yeah, hit the follow, hit the

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1:10:06 notification of our next episode, which is always on

1:10:09 Tuesdays. Yep, Tuesday mornings love it.

1:10:12 Yeah, love a Tuesday morning. All right.

1:10:14 Thanks everyone for joining us for another episode and we'll

1:10:16 see you next week. See you next week, everyone.

1:10:19 Stay curious. Crime besties.

1:10:37 What's your favorite song by Pause on?

1:10:41 No pause, pause off. Sorry, pause off.

1:10:45 Who does he think he is spending an inordinate amount of time

1:10:51 listening to his shit? We're probably like the only

1:10:53 people who've listened to his albums since.

1:10:55 I think we might be because oh, it's a bit of a light out sound

1:11:05 asleep. OK, you ready, guys?

1:11:09 We're going to get them and then I'm going to go on two weeks

1:11:11 holiday. OK.

1:11:15 And you go around the side. We'll go around the front me.

1:11:18 Me, me, me, me, me. No, no, no.

1:11:20 We don't have any proof or any efforts.

1:11:23 No, no. We'll just get them.

1:11:24 Yeah, don't worry about them. I'm going on holidays soon.

1:11:28 Yeah. They've got millions of dollars

1:11:30 of jewelry, luxury items, clothes and everything.

1:11:34 I can't wait. Oh, yeah, That's good enough for

1:11:43 me. Oh my.

1:11:49 God pajamas, did you just wake up

1:12:08 like.