REPLAY - Episode 13 - Melissa Caddick

0:16 Welcome back everybody to episode 13 of Two Crime Besties. Welcome everyone, I'm so excited to be here for another week. So am I. It's, it's very exciting. We've got our new equipment. We've got, if you're watching on Spotify or YouTube, we've actually got some little backdrops now. I feel like every week we're kind of getting a little bit, you know, more professional and whatnot. As long as they stay up. Yeah, well, we'll see. We'll. See, we might have to get invested in the stands next. I think so.

0:44 Whatever happens happens. But yeah, they're they're cool for now. How's your week been? Yeah, yeah, pretty good week, not too bad. It's been a busy one of as usual, running around after kids and Yep, keeping me very busy actually. But. Yeah, I've been really enjoying watching the Olympics. Loving watching the Olympics and my kids are way into it. Yeah, yes, yeah, I'm very well. I mean, because Australia is doing so well this year too, like better than they've ever done before with gold medal tellies and stuff, that it's like, I think it's just making it even more exciting.

1:13 And yeah. And every every morning you wake up and there's a new gold medal to add to. Telly And how's the little go getter? The 14 year old skateboarder Arissa True. Holy cow, believable. That's if she's. Such a gorgeous kid, like to be 14 and being interviewed by the world's media and to come across so amazingly, just she's incredible. Well, I got to like, have a bit of reminiscent from my like, younger, younger days. And I was able to say to the boys, you know, that because I think it was on Instagram that Tony Hawk shared, yeah, her win.

1:43 And I'm like, well, Tony Hawk's like more my era. And so I'm like, then I'm showing the boys like Tony Hawk videos of him doing his stuff. And they were, they were blown away by him. And I'm like, well, Tony Hawk will say Arisa True is better than him even now. Yeah. He does and. Then she's flicking. 1414 Speaking of Tony Hawk, when we were kids, my brother and I used to play Tony Hawk on the Nintendo 64. It was the best, yeah, but my brother, you'd would turn the Nintendo off because I was better at it than him.

2:11 And if I got a higher score, he'd literally turned them into score. And I'm still not over at 25. 30 years later. So today we are talking about none other than Melissa Kadik. So she she's a this is a really interesting story with a couple of very interesting characters, most notably her second husband, Tony Coletti. Anthony Coletti. We will get back. We will get to him. Yeah, as the episode goes on. But stay tuned, guys. Oh yeah. Yeah, that's so good. So good. So Melissa Kadik, born Melissa Grimley.

2:51 She was born in Sydney in New South Wales in Australia on the 21st of April in 1971. She was born into a very sort of middle class, normal Australian family, had a pretty typical upbringing from everything I've been able to hear. Yeah, her family seem lovely. Yeah, her mum and dad, hard working people. She's got a brother who has really stuck by her throughout this entire ordeal, even though, you know, he was actually one of her victims in the. End impacted by this. Yeah, yeah. So Melissa was, AI guess, a self-proclaimed.

3:30 Businesswoman very much so self-proclaimed. I mean she from workout she finished school and went and she didn't do great at school. She didn't do poor at school like. I actually think she didn't do very well at school. Like from yeah, from one of the podcasts I was listening to. There's a really good podcast about this, this case called Liar Liar Yeah, go and check it out if you want a long form podcast about this case. And and goes into really intricate detail. But apparently she used to do like what is known as.

3:59 It sounds horrible. But veggie math, I did veggie math. That's what I did too. You had to do a math subject to get into, like into education. Yeah. And so I had, I did veggie math 'cause I suck at maths. But yeah, oh, surprise, surprise, later on, got, you know, diagnosed with dyslexia. Like, of course, it wasn't great at maths. Derpies. Yeah. It's only you've known sooner. If only that's why veggie maths was my perfect subject. Well, I I don't even think it was a perfect subject for Melissa because I don't think she did.

4:27 Yeah, I think she did really, like, she really struggled with it from all accounts. So she's. Finance, sorry. Well, she didn't, actually. She kind of fell into finance though, didn't she? In a way. Yeah, yeah, because. She basically, I mean, she after school, I think she aspired to go to university for her. The way her life was perceived by other people was really important, even from back when she was, you know, really, really young. So after school, after high school, she actually went to, it was called Patrick's College.

5:03 And it wasn't a university, it was just a well, she ended up doing a secretary and business admin course there. Yeah. Yeah. That like that kind of led into to her first, her first job. But even from that start, she was lying on her resume. Yeah. Yeah, well, I think I, I'm not sure if did she lie on her first first job because she was employed originally as an office administrator. So I don't know that she would have had to have lied to get that job given. Probably not the. Course at Patrick's College that she did, yeah.

5:35 However, pretty much every job she had subsequently, yes, she lied. She lied about. So she worked for NRMA in their investment division as an office, office admin type type role. She'd be getting coffees. She'd be like, you know, inputting data. I can't see it. And I think she'd take like minutes of meetings and that kind of thing. So I guess she was Privy to some information during that time. And then there was a boutique investment bank and the guy, I think, who started that bank wanted to groom someone to sort of get somebody on board to kind of help build his business and somebody he could kind of mentor and grow.

6:16 In order to get that role, though, she lied, yes. So this was the start of known documented lying. In this case, on her resume she put fictitious qualifications including a degree from finance from Sydney from the University of Technology in Sydney. It later came out when the University was was approached to find out whether or not she actually held this qualification. Their comment was there is no record of completion of a diploma in finance or a Master's in business or finance or any qualification under the name Melissa Kadik or Grimly.

6:59 Yeah, never attended, never even applied. No, no record of her whatsoever. No record of her. Yeah. So in 1998, six months after starting at this boutique investment bank, which actually just real quick, what's a boutique investment bank and how can I get in? It sounds nice. Yeah, so she six months after starting there, they actually found out that they discovered that she'd stolen about $2000 by forging her boss's signature on on checks. And they found it out because I think this there was a branch in Perth and a branch in New South Wales.

7:44 And there was some discrepancy when they were balancing the books and the owner of the business went down to the bank so that he could actually see, physically see the checks. And he looks at the signature on them and he's like, that's not my. Signature. Not even close. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, you think she'd see his signature and at least try and copy it, but apparently it wasn't even like it was real really obvious that it wasn't his. Yeah. She was like skimming off the top, basically just stealing money from the company.

8:08 Yeah. So in this instance it was to the tune of around 2000 Australian dollars, so not a lot. So not a lot. So he said to her, I you can either leave and leave quietly and without consequence or I'm going to call the police. And she chose to leave. Now had they prosecuted her at the time, do you think the outcome would have been any different? Yeah, I think that maybe, look, she was prolific in what she ended up doing and I think she would have tried to find ways, but maybe, maybe, maybe there was would be some record then of who of things that she'd done in the past and therefore she couldn't have maybe got as far as she did.

8:46 Yeah, yeah, that's what I think. I think she still would have tried it on. Yeah, but agreed, I think maybe it would have put a little flag up when she was, you know, I don't know when she was starting to be investigated maybe and was like and they could go back and go oh, right in 19. 98 being prosecuted. Yeah, or even just a red flag of some. Even if she wasn't prosecuted, I don't know if that would have made a difference, but you know, we'll never know. Yeah. So yeah, she forged 4 checks to the tune of of the $2000.

9:17 So yeah, I'm sure if she wasn't caught, she would have just kept doing it. Oh, absolutely. And look, and I the company not doing anything further. I understand that. How much easier for them to deal with it. Just go, hey, you're done here. Off you go. Like, I mean, to go through actually, you know, filing the full, you know, and trying to charge her or whatever with this would have been a nightmare for the company a bit. So don't blame them for it. Yeah, but it has meant that she's been pretty much gone.

9:41 Right. Well, OK, I've learned something and I'll adapt. And this is how I'm going to get around to this next time. Yeah. She was then hired as a financial advisor. Sorry, this is the company that she was looking to be groomed to become a financial advisor through. Sorry that wasn't sorry at the boutique investment bank. She was hired as office administrator as. Well, sorry, but then the next job, then she again lied on her resume, yes, saying that at the previous company where she was literally just administratively really, Yeah, they were wanting to help groom her and, you know, teach her and things.

10:11 But she in on her resume put that basically she was managing billion dollar accounts. Literally with AB, yeah. Yeah. Which was she was, I think she said that she was managing in Rmas like international investments or something. Yes, Yeah. So she was hired as a financial advisor then for Wise Financial Services. They were a subsidiary of ING. Yes, a really large corporation. And was this the one that she like basically became a small owner of? So she. She invested small. Well, I guess so. She borrowed 750,000 Australian dollars to buy a 25% stake in the business.

10:53 Yeah. So I mean what's that valued at $3,000,000? The business, she, I I guess they must have seen some potential in her. By all accounts, the even though the owner of that business decided that he didn't want his name out there, he has made statements around her employment at at the time. And he did say that she was very personable. She was wonderful with the clients. She was very well liked by everybody. Yeah, she was clearly grooming people or she was gaining some some knowledge. I mean, she was very, very and manipulative, yeah.

11:33 So she so, yeah. So I've written in my notes here that by 2003 she was very well regarded in the industry and she featured on the cover of the Independent Financial Advisor. Yep, the first of two features. Oh yeah. I didn't know there was 2. Only Oh yeah, the other one was after. She was after, yeah. We normally not so, yeah, yeah, right. So one's like, you know? Looking pretty. Good. Yeah, the other. One maybe not so bad. She fell out with Wise Investments when the company refused to allow her to recommend property and shares to her clients.

12:09 Yeah, she was basically going beyond her scope. Scope of which her job. Was against regulatory compliance rules at the time and I believe still is still. Yeah. So she basically left there in December of 2004 and she left with her $750,000 investment. They gave that back to. Her as well. I'm like yeah, that's right. It's how much they wanted her out and. Yeah, they paid her back with no interest. No, like literally just gave her the money she'd invested into the company. Yeah. And went haha, see you later.

12:40 She claimed to her friends. Now, this is where the con really, really started, because she claimed to her family and friends that she received that she was involved. Actually there there are several stories. Yeah, she changed her story for everyone. Yeah. The main story is, or the most commonly told story was that she, during her time at Wise, she developed a piece of software with a few other people that superannuation funds purchased and that she was paid $86 million as a result of generating this piece of software, $86 million.

13:19 Oh my God and that she wasn't allowed to work in the industry for 10 years. She signed a non compete. For five years, I think it was a non compete. For five years, I read. Oh, OK, I read 10, but yeah, regardless, there was there was a period of time where she wasn't supposed to be trading. Yeah, yeah. She also claimed that she got that money from the company because of a sexual harassment. Claim Yeah, who's paying out 86 mil for a sexual harassment plan that claim? No one. But but so she was telling her friends and family this and they didn't question her.

13:50 They believed what she said. Yeah, yeah, yeah. She just went out like she would just spin everything. And I'm. I'm guessing she targeted who she changed her story for to she. Definitely, definitely did what? Would get that person more empathy, like for her, like. It was really interesting, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, she then went on to start her own company, company called Maliva or Maliva, I've heard it. I've heard it. I've had it both ways. Yeah, yeah. We've always got something in these episodes that we're not quite sure how to pronounce.

14:25 Get my tongue around, yeah. And she started to rein in her friends, so she offered. I mean, I guess people kind of conned into giving their money to her because she was like, look, I'm just doing this for family and friends. I'm only taking on a few clients. And I've got a spot, a spot available just now just for you. So if you if you invest with me. And so people felt pressured for sure. Well. She, I mean, she started out her first target was her lifelong friend who and the way she sort of got her and was like, oh, we're, we're both now single mothers and I'm investing my money.

14:59 I could just do it for you at the same time. And we could both benefit from this, you know, and because that's where my skill set is. It's like, you know, trying to bond with someone over that genuine, you know, common ground and then using that to her benefit to do over her best friend. Yeah, yeah, I just. That's gets me. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, she very much was like, I've only got 15 spots. I only ever take 15 clients at a time. Bullshit. Like she ended up with 60 clients at the moment at any at her peak.

15:30 Yeah. You know, some of them did pull their money out at times. What? And, you know, but then she'd quickly replaced them, obviously, because she's got to get the money coming in. Yeah, and what was she getting the money coming in for? She wasn't investing people's money, she was spending it. And I mean every all to. Explain I guess for our international listeners to what a superannuation fund is, I guess because it's very it's fairly Australian base that basically it's it's a fund where we put money in our employers contribute to these funds so that we have retirement money.

15:59 So instead of necessarily relying entirely on government funds, at the end of your working life you have a bucket of money that. Yeah. I think the equivalent in America is a 401401K. Yeah. I'm not sure what the equivalent in Europe or Asia is or whether there even is 1, but it is basically, yeah, money for your retirement. Yeah, yeah. And so there's different ways in Australia where you can how you can invest that. So most people use like funds that are set up, some of them are like industry specific and things like that.

16:28 You can choose how, which, which fund you go with and they all invest in various ways. Or another way of going about it is doing a self managed Superfund, which is what Melissa Kadik was basically saying that she was able to do for these people, is take your money out of that company's fund, give it to me and I'll invest it for you in whatever various ways to make the. Money. So she was saying that she was getting far greater returns on the investments than the stock standard investment funds or superannuation funds that people had their money in.

17:02 So. And it's quite regulated in terms of taking money out of super funds. Like it's, it is regulated that everyone must try and attempt to have this money when you finish your working life, that it's not a matter of, you know, or you can just freely take money out. You've actually got to prove what you're going to do with this money in a, in some sort of superannuation, in retirement way. So you can invest in property or shares, things like that. But it's regulated, yeah, even under a super, even under a self managed situation.

17:27 That's it, Yeah. So Melissa was conning all of her friends and family, so they're thinking she's got this $886,000,000 windfall and she's doing this out of the kindness of her own heart to help them build their portfolios and wealth. Base already living like this very lavish lifestyle and everyone was sort of querying where this money could have come from that she was living like that. Well, she hadn't. Yeah, she had a story for where this money came from, but it wasn't her money. It was their money that she was spending.

17:54 So this childhood friend of hers, she conned her parents, her nephew, niece, sister, to invest all of their money with her as well. Yeah. And when they saw that they were getting these incredible returns, they were not only investing their superannuation, they were investing, like putting extra of their money. Yeah. Earnings into into her portfolio. The accounts that she created through COMSEC. So that's a trading account. They had 6 digits. Turns out Comsec's actual accounts, trading accounts, have 8.

18:27 No one picked up on that. But I wouldn't. I would have no idea because she would fraudulently. So monthly they would get these statements from her that she just fraudulently created. And yeah, and these digits at the top of the account number. Now a COMSEC account typically is managed by the individual who owns the account. So these people that she was pulling in were not financially savvy people in that they, I mean, I'm not a fully vouched to that. I wouldn't know the first thing about what, how you manage these things on your own.

18:57 Yeah. I mean, I've often said I'd love to put some money in shares, but I'm scared, terrified of it. Like I don't know how to do that. Yeah. So they were basically relying on her to go, I know what I'm doing, so I'll do it for you. They didn't know that these Comsec accounts are not meant to be managed by the the financial advisor. You as the that person can direct where you send the money, but you're meant to be able to have full access to that account and be able to enter like literally login like you do to your bank account.

19:22 Check how your shares are doing on a daily basis if you wanted to. That's not what she set up for them. Like they couldn't access it. They had to go via her to see what their shares were doing and she was just creating these false documents. That's because there was telling errors and everything, no? Like, you think she'd have a bit of attention to detail because by all accounts, she was a bit of a control freak as well. Yeah, so. And she was very organized and meticulous in the way she approached.

19:48 I'm going to say work, but it's not well, Yeah, her, her whole. Wardrobe which I wanted to check out. I know, like she had this, so she was spending everybody's money. She was going on these lavish holidays she had. So she had a home in Dover Heights in Sydney, which is the second most expensive suburb in Australia. Yeah. The average house price there I think is something like $4.8 million. The average house price Australia wide is somewhere like around the $1,000,000 mark 50 or something, something like that.

20:23 Yeah, but her house was actually worth $6.2 million. What wasn't actually well, so she it was actually she overpaid for that that property and which again is her just like kind of going well, I can so I will. Apparently she was looking at some property. I don't think it was this particular one. It might. They ended up they bought a penthouse in like Sydney City as well. Yeah, it might have been when she was looking for that and she's looking around and they actually, she didn't end up purchasing this properly property, but she was looking around.

20:52 She was like, and it was worth $36 million. And apparently she said to the real estate agent, I wouldn't pay a dollar over 32.

21:01 Like, what a wanker, what a wanker. And 32,000,000 of whose money? Whose money? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've got a note here that she spent $54,000 in one hit at a shoe store. So I think she spent like $250,000 at Dior in 18 months or something. And that's just at Dior. Yeah, she also had like, Valentino, Louis Vuitton, she was spending big and she loved her fashion. Oh yeah, shoes galore. They were all catalogued in her wardrobe with pictures on the front of the shoe boxes like her wardrobe looked. Amazing.

21:37 She wouldn't wear the same outfit twice. Yeah, either. So she she was famously known for saying that she that she would wear a ball gown to work just because she hadn't hadn't everything else to wear that she hadn't worn yet. Oh, wow. Yeah. People have sort of commented that she would rock up in these outfits that really didn't match what she was doing. Even this is early days too. She was very much into her brand names that even when she wasn't pulling 100 hundreds of thousands of dollars from people, when she was just skimming the tops of other things for, you know, a few $1000, she would rock up to work.

22:10 You know, I mean, they always say, you know, dress for the job you want. Yeah, but she was fully dressing for the job she wanted like, and it was way above where she was actually at. Well, I think one of her bosses was like, I couldn't understand how she could afford a Louis Vuitton bag and. Because she was, she was taking money off you, mate, Yeah. And the designer clothes, like, yeah, that's it. Yeah. She went on some incredibly extravagant holidays I've got listed down here. Aspen was a she frequented.

22:37 I love the Aspen one because even to very recent time and husband believes that the the place that they were staying in in Aspen that she owned it and she would tell people when she was there holidaying in Aspen that that was their chalet and that they owned it. And it was actually like apparently she bumped into a like a a friend. Well, not a friend. She they just happened to just get talking to the people and it turned out their kids went to school together back here in Australia. And this woman was like being told that, you know, by her, that by Melissa Kadik that you know, that, you know, we own the chalet and she fully knew that she didn't.

23:10 She's like it gets rented out like and. And we come here every year and we know that I think they knew the owner of. Something like that. They legit hate big money. Yeah, I think it was Prue and I just love that cause Proof and Brighton. Prue and True. It just fits really well. But yeah, so she she would just tell these blatant lies like this woman was like, I'm being such a snob here, but what the hell are you people doing? Yeah. So I think it's probably worth going back at this point before we really get into her undoing.

23:43 Yeah, we go back to sort of her more her personal life and the way that kind of played out. Melissa was originally married, so she's got a penchant for men named Tony. That's so true. Because her first husband was named Tony Anthony Kadik and they were married. He was a builders laborer, I believe, when they first got married. Yeah. And she really, she, she didn't like that. He was, he was an English backpacker out here, like he was a friend of a friend that she got introduced to her whilst he was backpacking out here.

24:17 Yeah, but as we were saying before, she appearances were everything to her and oh God, she couldn't possibly marry a labourer. So she really pushed him and pushed him to I think he ended up studying law in the end. So he was from, from England and it at some point they decided to move over there to be closer to his family. They had a young son at the time and they lived in Essex and he was commuting every day to London for work. And by all accounts, he was very successful in his career, like he was really establishing himself and.

24:52 But she didn't like Essex. No, well she was quite secluded I suppose and she moved from Australia. She didn't really know many people I don't think being a stay at home mom because she wasn't working while she was there. So yeah, she wasn't wasn't working when she was in England. She was raising their son together, but she wasn't that into it, I don't think. No, no, She decided to, well, she convinced her husband that she needed to go to a conference to stay, you know, involved in this, in the industry that she was working in.

25:26 And I think she said to him she was going to Switzerland for a conference, but it turns out she'd went to Paris instead. And A and friends saw her in Paris. I mean, how freakish that you come up and walk, you know, all across the world like this random place. And yeah, friends spot something, I guess from England to Paris. It's not where it was from us that for here in Australia, it feels really, you know, like that's so far away. Like, yeah. So he's in Paris. She's spotted by this friend because she's in Paris canoodling with her hairdresser from back in Australia.

25:58 The second Anthony. So the and he's it just happens to be the next Anthony. Yeah yeah. So yeah. So he's she's big time caught because the the friend took photos like it was like obvious these two were not there catching up as friends. They were canoodling. They were canoodling was the word news. So they were making out obviously in some cafes. Yeah. So now Anthony Anthony number 2 is an interesting character. 10 years her junior, 1111 is that oh oh. Scandal. But people thought that he was her son, his yeah, not her husband.

26:32 And. Her boyfriend. And your boyfriend? Yeah, yeah. So basically when Anthony number one or Tony number one got caught Wing so the friend contacted him and was like oh. The check things. Out and it turns out that friend's wife, Melissa, had actually confided in the wife that she'd been cheating on. Oh wow. Tony with Anthony. Wow. Yeah. Oh, God. And so he was like, no, enough's enough. We've seen it out in the open. Now it's time for you to to, you know, face the music, so to speak. Yeah. So when Melissa gets home back to London or back to Essex from this work trip, he confronts her about it and decides to go.

27:11 And, you know, they have a bit of a fight. She never admits to it even though he's got proof. She just sort of manipulates the situation. Anyway, he decides to go and stay, I think with his family for a few days. And in that time she basically starts creating this sob story though. So she's contacted her brother in Australia and said that that Tony number one is abusive, he's controlling, she's not allowed to do anything and really builds up the fact that he's a not has not been a nice husband. Yeah.

27:48 So her brother flies as soon like straight away over to London to get her back, get around to Australia and get her out of this abusive environment. And lo and behold, she cleared out everything. She cleared out their bank accounts, She took all of the jewelry. She even took like cutlery and random stuff like that. God, yeah, yeah, just a mess with him it. Makes no sense. Anyway, she basically brings their son home to Australia as well and completely cuts. Contact to the point she changed the phone number so Tony number one's back in in England unable to contact.

28:29 His child, yes. So he actually comes over to Australia to and knocks on their door and he's like, I need to see my son. He kind of then in this story, pretty much fades into the background. Yeah, you don't get much of like that and know what goes on there, which you know, we don't need to. Absolutely. But I think it's worth noting that it has come out that he was none of the things that Melissa accused him of being. He wasn't controlling, he wasn't abusive. He confronted her because she'd done something wrong and that made him a monster in her eyes.

29:00 Yeah, but she, and this is the story she continued to tell to everyone. Yep. And everyone felt a lot of empathy for her in this situation where, you know, as the story that she was telling that she was being abused and. Because he believed the person who's being abused, that's why. Yeah, as we should. As we should. There are very few women out there who lie about this stuff, and this woman is definitely one out of the bag like she. Absolutely. Is it how lie that tarnishes, you know, reputations and stories for Yeah, for other women who are actually experiencing these?

29:31 100%. Yeah, shame on her. Shame on her in so many ways. Oh, well, this is it. It's just it's her character in general. And once she realized what she really who she really was, because I mean, she put across to everyone and like you listen to family and friends about her as a person, they all thought she was lovely and bubbly and fun and that she was just this really nice person. And she was not like there was just nothing about her that was likable. She was under the surface. She was just, she all she cared about was herself in the inquest, which I know I'm sort of skipping ahead a bit here, but there was a psychologist who took the stand at the inquest.

30:11 Yeah. And she said that Melissa without being able to formally diagnose her. But Melissa displayed all the signs of having a narcissistic personality disorder. Sociopathic narcissist, yeah, is what Yeah basically said she would be if they could sit her down. From all accounts of friends, family, of what everyone described and the actions that they know she took, this is that's the out. That's the way they could diagnose her was yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. And she really, really and truly was. Yeah. So we now get to her relationship with Anthony Coletti.

30:46 Well, isn't he an interesting character? So he was her hairdresser when he sort of established, you know, more established his relationship with her. He was no longer really hairdressing. He'd do some clients I think part time. He also did prawn breeding. Yeah, yeah, I looked into all these. And prawn breeding. Interesting one. And he, oh, I mean his passion, his life's work, Deejaying. Yeah, please do yourselves A favour and jump on Spotify and look up Pause off Paws as in animal Paws Paws Paws Off is his music and you'll find his album there.

31:31 Yep, so worth a listen. It is. It is fantastic. I mean, I don't really want to give this guy any more of my money, but I mean, look. I don't think he's making any 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 whole on the album. Yeah, it's a bit of a spoken word, like lyrics. I'm just going to read you a couple of my favorite. Please yes, bring it. A young lady from a large corporation that tortured a lady for 14 hours. The rhyming just gets me.

32:12 Might get a snake or a rat and call it Isabella. I'll buy the ugliest thing I can find. So Isabella, Isabella Allen was the ASIC lead investigator? Yeah, lead investigator. Who ended up taking out an Ivo against him because he was that horrific. Yeah, yeah. So they're married, they've bought this, you know, property in Dover Heights. They're living the high life. He's got a 400 odd $1000 sports car. She's buying these extravagant. He is living the life because he he genuinely thinks, I think he genuinely thinks that it's all legitimate and that she's this incredible financial wizard and she's got all this money and she really controlled him.

33:01 At the end of the day, unbeknownst to him, he was in an abusive relationship. Yeah, I mean, he's certainly met a need for her and and she had a lot of control over him and she. Had all the control. I think that actually plays a lot into his actions after Oh yeah, Melissa's disappearance. But we'll we'll get to that in a second. So they're living this lovely life. Things are going really, really well. And what happens? I think it was let me just get my I need to make sure on the early in the early hours of the 11th of November who knocks on their door at like 5:30 in the morning.

33:39 Well, no. Wasn't 5:30 in the morning? Well, according to according to Anthony, it was 5:30 in the morning. According to ASIC, it was more like 630. Oh, really? Yeah. OK. Yeah, Yeah. OK. Well. Because ASIC even say like we have to be careful about overtime hours and so we would be knocking on the door at 5:30 in the morning for overtime hours. So I love that because he just, he really ramps it up in those songs about how bad that. Rate. I reckon that's where I got my 5:30 from. Actually, totally not from the song.

34:04 Yeah, it's from the song. I really need to check my sources. They had a warrant to search and seize any proceeds of crime. Yeah, essentially the crimes that Melissa had committed. So they've been working on this case for months and months and months in the lead up to this day. Yeah. There's question whether or not Melissa caught wind potentially of the fact that ASIC were looking into her. So there there was a really interesting thing that happened maybe about a month before the raid, a pure and utter chance.

34:43 So when Melissa would go to Aspen, she would try and recruit clients over there because obviously people who are in those situations rich, you know, they've got lots of money. And she actually was able to recruit a client in, in Aspen, an Australian woman who chose to invest two and a half million dollars of her money with Melissa. And this, that woman was then sitting in a dentist's office waiting to have a teeth cleaning done. And she was sitting next to a woman in the in the waiting room. And they got chatting.

35:17 I'm not even sure what sparked the conversation, but they got chatting and they discovered. So the woman, the other woman, not the Aspen woman, the other one sitting in the chair. She was the woman whose license Melissa was using to trade Rachel. Yeah. Right to trade like she obviously needed a, an accreditation number in order to do some of the not even legitimate. She'd borrowed this woman's number to put on the, on the paperwork, paperwork that she was already forging. And this woman knew about it.

35:50 But I, I don't, I never, I couldn't find anything about whether she'd gone to ASIC or whether she was the informant. They believe that Rachel was the informant was at least one of the informants because so I believe there was a phone call from Melissa to this Rachel asking can I just borrow your number at one stage. What? Yeah, yeah. To which Rachel was like no, that's fully illegal. You can't do that, which I think then triggered for this Rachel. Well hang on a second. Has she done this before?

36:19 And I so I do believe that Rachel hat was one of the informants and rang asset going I think my numbers being used inappropriately. Yeah. So I think that's what triggered it back further. OK. And the other one was a doctor in Perth, Yeah, yeah. So there was some doctors. Somehow she managed to get infiltrate some doctors in Perth Earth and one of the doctors that he was like, Yep, Keane as I want to invest. $4 million. You have a fair bit of money, but just so happens his wife was an accountant.

36:46 So no, not a financial advisor, completely different job. But being an accountant, she was a bit more savvy and she wanted to ask questions like what's the number? What's her financial advisor number? What's, you know, how's this being invested in things and these questions where they're not being able to be answered properly, that this accountant then I believe also was an informant. Yeah, potentially. But Melissa Cook, because they started asking Melissa all these questions, she literally gave them their money back without any.

37:14 Questions. All of a sudden it was like, oh, actually I can't. I actually can't help you. I can't help. You, yeah. So I think that also raised a red flag for them to work. You can't just pull that money out without our signatures like you should have. You shouldn't have been able to do that. So that obviously got them. So the Rachel in the dentist's office said to this lady from that Melissa had met in Aspen, take your money out Now there's something going on. This is not legitimate. And so she rings Melissa and she's like, oh, Melissa, I've actually, she fabricated as in, yeah, she fabricated this story.

37:47 But she said, oh, I found a house that I want to buy and can I please have my money back? You know, And by all accounts, at this point, Melissa had told her that she'd made $300,000 return on her investment at that point. So, you know, by all accounts, she should have $2.8 million now in in her fund. And Melissa is like, oh, no, you know, property is not a good investment. This is not a good idea. I strongly advise against it. And she really stood her ground. She was like, no, no, I want my money.

38:19 Yeah, I think she's the only one. And the Perth, the Perth doctor, Yeah. Who were able to actually get out before? Right before, yeah. There were certain ones that legitimately like retired and one of their supers paid out and things like that, which she like, this is the thing with a Ponzi scheme, which is what this was. Yeah. Which is basically a fancy word for robbing Peter to pay Paul. Yeah. She would legit like just take this money off people and use it for herself to pay for what she wanted to live on and do where.

38:45 And so these this money was not being invested how they were expecting it to be invested. But so she would have to then like basically go, this person would come to her and say, yeah, look, I'm ready to retire. I'd like to pull out my money. And she would then have to scrounge and try and pull all this money together. And actually, there's a few people that got their money back by doing that. But that legit that that's just meant that she then had to go and find another client to replace what least more than one.

39:06 You know, that's why she built from going, you know, I only have 15 clients at a time to this sixty that she ended up with at the time of the when they when she was found out because she was like, we'll need more. I need, I need more money. So I've got to get more investors. Yeah. Insane. Oh. Insane. Yeah. So she ended up giving the $2.8 million back. So she's down 300 grand, would you be? Great. Grateful that you got a bit of a tip off to get out, but yeah. Not everybody was so lucky. No. So the raid happens and ASIC, so they turn up with the AFP, the Australian Federal Police and they are allowed to seize anything that was purchased with investor funds.

39:48 And so they have gone and they've taken all of her designer clothing, all of her jewellery. There were two wedding dress. There was Oh yeah, for one piece of jewellery, a lot of them were worth, you know, hundred 100,000 here, 200,000 there. Yeah. All these, all these designer clothes, they took her laptops, they took anything hard. Drives of CCTV that was around the house unfortunately. Yeah, yeah. They took anything of value in the house. Yeah. Watches galore. Raid or Yeah, the raid and seizure took about 14 hours I believe.

40:24 So they were there for a really long time. ASIC put out a report at the end of all of this and basically, I mean, they were wearing yeah, body recording devices. So we know a lot about what happened in that day. Apparently Melissa, at certain point. So. So it was later claimed that they denied her food and water and. Which was not Pause Off's music. Oh my God, I think Anthony was really put out by the fact that they took so much of their personal items as well. Well. Yeah, He was like convinced that this was all legit, that this money was hit theirs and, you know, well, his and that they should have been taking anything.

41:09 Yeah. They took his sports card, too. That really upsetting. He did. He didn't like that, No. So you can imagine going through this, whether I mean, Melissa obviously knows she's guilty. Anthony doesn't. What I find that interesting, with the body Cam footage, the bits that you do get to have been able to see the way her, like her body language, etcetera, you could say she was terrified. Yeah. And she knew she'd been caught and she was done. Yeah. Which speaks to a lot. For what? Came next, I think, yeah, I think so, yeah, yeah.

41:40 So the end of, you know, ASIC have gone. They've basically said to her so I think this happened on a Wednesday, yeah, they said to her that she needed to appear in court on the Friday morning. Now this is in 2020 COVID time. November of 2020. So we'll yeah, Melbourne probably still in a lockdown. Yep, no doubt, No doubt. But she had to appear via video link because court wasn't sitting face to face still at that point. Yeah, basically what happened in that interim time. So ASIC leaves her house.

42:12 I think it was about 5:00 in the afternoon. They've taken everything. They don't have much left at all. Apparently they had take away for dinner her and her son and Anthony and then. Well, I think that her phone was able, it was being able to be tracked from that point. And they said that she Google searched Uber Eats of where to where to get dinner and a lawyer. Yeah, which I mean, I wasn't able to get an answer on this. So during the raid, to me, first and foremost would be I'll call my lawyer, lawyer.

42:39 And to me, someone who, I mean, this is a game where it undoes her a little bit. Someone who is operating with a business that is that many hundreds of thousands dollars, millions of dollars. Surely you have a lawyer. If you don't have a lawyer, you surely have someone who knows someone who knows someone who knows someone who would be like, I'll get you onto this person. I'm shocked that she didn't call a lawyer whilst there was police there. But what was She had said to the lawyer? Well, to me, a lawyer would have been able to rock up and at least advise her.

43:07 Don't say any more. Or you know, like 100% she should have had a lawyer with her that day. Yeah, from what we get. And then, look, I mean, maybe we're not getting everything. And maybe maybe Anthony's correct in this, in his music, how he says that we weren't even allowed to get a lawyer. I'm. Well, that's not legal. I'm fairly certain that the one person who could have walked through that door that day to support that situation would have been a lawyer. Yeah. To wait until they've left before she starts Google searching.

43:34 A lawyer. I would have been Google searching. I would have been on the phone. Who do I need to get to? Like, whether you're guilty or innocent, like whatever, like, you know, where's, where's lawyer? I need a lawyer. Yep. Yep. But wouldn't you have done that at 6:30 in the morning, 7:00 in the morning? You wouldn't have waited all day, but I feel. Like no, she just. Apparently, at one point she even went and laid down on the bed. During the race. She didn't. She did seem to just sort of. Just shut down I reckon.

43:57 Yeah, yeah, because the other thing that gets me is that Anthony says that that evening after they've all left. OK, well and how would you react if if people just come through your house and raided the whole place? I would have had a million and one questions for my partner going, you know, like. Right. What the actual? Just happened, yeah. He never asked her a thing. No, in fact, he said quote UN quote, we had a normal night. Sorry, what we? Cuddled to go to sleep? Yep, she just needed me to cuddle.

44:26 Her she had a bath and we just I cuddled her to sleep. What? I would have been like, whoa, the the questions could not have come thick enough, but I think this. I think this plays into her control over here. Like he didn't feel like he could ask questions of. Her and that's how he has absolutely no understanding no of the control and abuse that was being done to him. Yeah, he is still under that spell. Yes. Of I have no power here. I'm not to speak and I'm not to ask questions. This is for her to sort out.

44:56 Yeah, man. Oh, it's it's mind blowing. Yeah. So they go to bed around midnight, 5:30. This one legit is 530 because her son attests to the fact that he heard the front door closing at around that. Time he did a question mark on that is there because the gym was on the third floor. Yep. And they said that the distance between the the gym and the front door, you wouldn't hear the click of the door. Oh, OK, but her son was in bed. No, he, I think he said he was in the gym, he was working out or something.

45:28 Oh, OK. Yeah, but even then, even from his bedroom, which it was all that was like wherever he was, it was on the third floor of the house. OK. I mean, this place was pretty massive and it had this incredible view from the rooftop to the Sydney Harbour. Stunning. But yeah, he was on the 3rd floor and the obviously to the door. They questioned whether or not he actually could have heard the door click. OK. All right. OK. So she's left at some point in the morning. Yeah, she's left behind her phone, wallet, keys she has taken.

45:58 She was meant to be meeting a friend to go for a run. She had a personal trainer that was also invested in her with with her business and lost a lot of money. And she was meant to be meeting her to go for a run. And she didn't text message her during the morning. Yeah, to say I won't be able to meet today. And then. Yeah. So. But no one's hurt, seen or heard of her. From her since. Since. She's gone missing, so she's gone out. She's got nothing with her. Anthony just stays at home all day waiting for her.

46:27 Doesn't come ring. Anybody doesn't do anything. He literally does nothing. Literally what would he have actually done? I don't even think they had a TV. Well. I mean that's the thing, he was complaining that they had access to no money. Like he couldn't even buy food. They had an $800 a week allowance. Was that from? Immediately, immediately right as it gave them pretty decent, I know. Better than settling. Yeah. Now in the lead up to this, Melissa had done a few things which I've, you know, I guess are suspicious.

46:57 Yeah, she paid 6 months worth of their mortgage repayments upfront, whereas she'd been paying monthly before that. Asked Anthony to help her get a shredder. A shredder, like an industrial $3000 shredding machine. That was sort of, yeah, that was building up the months prior, wasn't it, I? Think in the July. Yeah, yeah. So that was a, that was sort of a little bit of a indicator of that. She might have had wind of something with us. Something was going on. The other thing she did was she deleted all of her social media profiles.

47:30 That's right, Yes, she did. And Facebook or? Instagram, Facebook, Instagram so that I'm guessing so she couldn't be traced. I reckon more so like that she knew this was gonna be big news and people couldn't. Tag her or contact. Her find her like in terms of finding information about her from the media and that sort of thing and go searching for her photos and yeah, yeah. So there's been knowledge that something was coming, yeah. Whether it was just, I mean, these things can't go on forever. There's got seriously, 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 stressed person. It was very stressful for her to run this Ponzi scheme, you know, and earn all this money get. All this poorly diddums. But yeah, so she wasn't in a good way. She was pretty stressed out and agitated. And maybe she just knew that this was. There's got to be an end. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, but or, or she'd been tipped off in some way that. Yeah, so she's missing for a day the next morning. So she's missing the ASIC rate happened Wednesday.

48:32 Missing all day Thursday, Anthony. Like, this is what gets me. He's gone to bed Thursday night. She still hasn't come home to get any of her things. She's still missing. What does he do? Oh, this is the best. This is actually the best. Before going to bed on Thursday night, what does he do? Mega. No, you go. No, you go. Go, go, go, go. He gets in his car and he plays her favorite music that he's created on loudspeaker. He winds down his windows and he drives around Dover Heights, hoping that his music will attract her back to him or.

49:06 If he didn't really do. That Well, look, I think there's in the inquest, it actually, this is his story. This is what he told police that he did. Yeah. But in the inquest it actually came out because they were able to track his phone and his movement. Yeah, he didn't actually do that, but I love that. I love that that's his story. Oh, then he thought that was like, really? I don't know that people would be like, oh, he's so beautiful.

49:30 But what he actually did was he went around to a friend's place, smoked a joint and went back home. He did not disclose to this friend that Melissa was missing. He did not disclose to this friend that they'd been raided the day before. So this friend just thought, Oh yeah, he's just come over for a regular Thursday night. Yep, wouldn't you be like, mate, you wouldn't be. What's what's been going on? Like my wife's missing. Don't you think he'd want to tell someone something? Oh, I mean, because I do OK.

49:57 The situation he was in, I fully think that he was in a situation where he was like, I don't want to do anything because I think I'll get into trouble, I'll do the wrong thing. I do get that perspective. And there was another thing he did say that I'll agree with him. There is an you sort of think with an adult going missing, you have to wait 24 hours before you can report them missing. However, in this situation with an ASIC raid on their house, think it's kind of important that you disclose that she's not, she's missing immediately.

50:27 But not only that, yeah. Because the situation that we're in, it's highly volatile, like what she would do. You want to be able to protect her and look after her and make sure she's OK like if nothing else. Yeah. Do you think it's still a widely like thought out thing that people think you have to wait 24 hours to report someone missing? Personally, if there was an adult, child, whatever missing, I would do it immediately. And even if those cops turned to me and said come back in 24 hours, I'd be right.

50:53 I'd be like don't. Think, I don't think in this day and age they would do that because in 24 hours they're losing a lot of a lot of potential information. In this situation, 100% they wouldn't have been. Go away and wait 24 hours. Yeah, 100%. Once they'd realized who she was and what was going on, they would have looked into it. Having said that, when he reported her missing, so OK, the next morning, Friday morning, she's meant to attend court via video link. The video link pops up and it's Anthony's face.

51:21 So they've got the ASIC investigators there and the, the, the judge from the court for the court hearing, Anthony pops up and they're like, where's Melissa? And he goes, she's not here. And like, well, where is she? And he goes he. Was out. He wanted to know if she was on the link. Yeah. She was like, is she here? Yeah. Oh, she's not here. Oh well, I haven't seen her since 2 nights before. Because this again what what gets me in this right. So that court hearing happened and there's obviously Asic's lawyer on the call and there's AK is on the screen on his little logo and there's no one else.

51:54 So the the court not understanding sort of, you know, who's present and they do that. They call you and say, you know, is someone here representing, you know, the the respondent and then, you know, this sort of thing and like and they're like, oh, we believe there is someone here AK like and because they're thinking this could be her lawyer, but it's not It's Anthony. Anthony And he's like, oh what? Melissa's not here. And they're like, no, like where is she? And he? He goes, well, I don't know.

52:20 And they're like, well, have you reported her missing? And he goes no. No. So he's they're just to adjourn the court hearing. Yeah. Because they're like, you need to go to the cops, you need to report that she's. Missing, he still takes I think 6 hours after that until he actually calls the police and then so he called he he goes down to Bondi, yeah, police station to report her missing, right. They then say to him we need to interview you and he goes no, no. Thanks. I did not know that he refused to be interviewed.

52:48 Yeah, so because he'd be shit scared, he'd say something. Wrong. Yep. So they then go back to his house because they're like, well, we need to see, yeah, some evidence, have a look. And they walk in and they're like, where's all that stuff? Yeah, like, what's going on? And then they see on the table that the ASIC, all the warrant. The warrant. Yeah, all of the the stuff. And they're like, whoa, whoa. And these were uniformed police officers who did this initial search. Body cams on them too. Yeah, they've then escalated that to a more senior officer.

53:19 They immediately were like, he's potentially done something here too. That's what they think. Yeah, their immediate instinct, there's three of the three of them all had the same instinct that I will. It's he's got something to do with their disappearance. Yeah, it was that dodgy like what he was, how he was reacting and his. Story is really weird and he's really evasive with them. So they escalate it to a Sergeant named Trent Riley and you can watch his body Cam footage as well when he then comes to the house.

53:47 So I think he spoke to Tony on the phone and then he's come to the house as well to further the investigation or to figure out exactly what's going on. And he says to Anthony, mate, I'm really concerned here like this is this is really unusual what's happened, what's happened? And he's like, oh, I can't give you any information about that. I can't tell you anything about that. Yeah, he. He won't. It's like he's not being cooperative. And then when they challenge him and say you're not being cooperative, he's like, no, no, I'll do whatever it takes, whatever it takes, I'll help you.

54:19 And they're like, OK, so when did you last see Melissa? And he's like, oh, yeah. Well, it was the night before last. And they're like, well, that's not what you told us when you originally reported her missing. You told us you'd seen her in the morning. And yeah. His story just never added up. No, in the inquest, The judge actually, sorry, the coroner at the inquest actually called him on all this and said we can't actually really take your account for what it's worth because yet take it into account because.

54:47 It chops and changes. It's too much. And there's so many different versions of events. Yeah. He was an unreliable witness. I genuinely think though that that was just him being him. As in, like, I think he's a sandwich short of a picnic. Oh 100%, I don't know, just listen. Listen purposefully being evasive. So, so he when he filled out this is this will just give you a bit of an idea as to exactly how his mind works. When he was filling out the missing persons report for Melissa at the police station when he first did it, they get you to fill out what, what was she last wearing?

55:20 And so it's like she was wearing activewear. She was wearing these ASICS shoes. Or he wrote Nike, but yeah. Oh, he did write Nike, actually, that's right. But she was actually wearing ASICS. We know that for sure later. And then there's a section to write what underwear she was wearing and he wrote Grandma. No, he did not. Oh my God, that you got into trouble for Anthony so. The other thing is like when the police ask her, ask him like why do you think she's gone missing? This is before they knew all of the ASIC stuff.

55:52 He goes, oh, no reason I have. I have no idea why she would have gone missing. Yeah, she's got no reason to disappear right now. There's nothing going on in our lives. We're just regular millionaires. Yep, Yep. Apparently he was quite sweaty when they asked him questions too. Like he was getting really worked up. Like he couldn't, he couldn't, he couldn't. Like, I don't know, he was so on edge and. Obviously he was going to get in trouble with Melissa.

56:22 So 100 days after Melissa went missing, was it 400 kilometers? 400 kilometers down the coast. Yeah, yeah. There are some kids walking along the beach. Yeah, a very secluded beach by all accounts. Yeah. And they discover a shoe. And inside that shoe is, and it was obviously forensically tested and it was proven to be Melissa's foot. Now the foot was so degraded that they can't actually tell how the foot was severed from the leg. So they don't know whether it was a shark bite or whether it was sawn off, that the bone was too degraded to be able to actually make that determination.

57:05 So nobody actually knows to this day what has happened to Melissa or even that she's 100% dead. No. Well, the coroner did in 2023 declare that she's dead. Yeah, but and also said, but couldn't decide how. The manner of death is still death. Yeah, yeah. Open but still, yeah. Everyone, I mean the people who knew her very well all say she would have categorically had a Plan B. Yep. Which then opens up, I mean, there's these people who genuinely knew her, are not convinced that she wouldn't have cut her own foot off and found a way of getting back, you know, climbing back and getting her money back.

57:44 Yeah. I just, I don't know. What do you think? Look, the narcissist that she was and what I know of narcissist, I struggle with the thought that she's topped herself, that I don't know that, that that just doesn't seem right to me. The thought of her being murdered, I have looked and I've gone down a few rabbit holes on this of like, OK, so if if it's if she was, if there's foul play here, who would that have been? And if so, you think, OK, so there's got to be someone helping her in this financial situation of like stealing all this money potentially were other people involved and didn't want their names coming out?

58:20 So I can understand that maybe there was someone there who potentially could have murdered her, but I go down all these rabbit holes and there's no one, there isn't anyone that sticks out. There's one guy who was an accountant that she had in Brisbane who was being put in jail for fraudulent financial matters previously, but don't think so from what I can research on him well. I don't think, I think they they looked down that yeah, it's been pretty. He was, he was not in like he couldn't have been in New South.

58:49 Wales. Not at the time, no. So there's, there's much so that kind of, I feel like that's a dead end too. So then the only other than option is that she is still alive and out there and has gone on the run. I mean, she did have flying lessons and the people have talked about maybe she jumped, she got on a plane and flew herself somewhere or she's got on a yacht, which is plenty of those, you know, fairly accessible. And but they've looked at marinas and they've looked at CCTV. No one has. Found anything or?

59:17 The thing that gets me the most out of all this mystery, and it is going to be a mystery forever, I believe for this. So her CCTV footage of her from her house was turned off because they took all the hard drives. So her walking out of her front door is not on any footage, absolutely. But in that area there was CCTV footage being from other houses in the street and other areas around. So they've gone, the police have gone and got all that footage. She's nowhere to be seen. So if she walked somewhere or drove her car somewhere, it would have been picked up on CCTV and it was not.

59:56 So the only other option then is that she was picked up by somebody and then we don't know what that vehicle looks like to know that she'd be in that car on the CCTV footage. So it's a that gets me. Where did she go from walking out her front door? Did she walk out her front door? Like how that gets me. Agreed. But at the end of that, I think if her foot's rocked up, she's not hopping around somewhere. No, I think, I think she's dead. I do. I think I just don't know. How? And I agree with you in that given her narcissistic traits, the fact I find it hard to come out that she would have killed herself.

1:00:29 Although if she was so like this has tarnished her reputation so bad that she thought there's no way I'm ever coming back from this. Yeah, maybe that would have pushed her over the edge to go down you. Look at her in that, that footage from, as we were saying from the from the raid. Yeah, she looks pretty stressed and she knows, like her, it's all coming crashing down. She doesn't want to have to face the music. Yeah. Yeah, I don't think. She will ever know popping. Around some island living a life I really don't.

1:00:55 I think she's dead. And the thought of her being able to manage like a, you know, OK, she's gone, maybe she's gone somewhere and had someone surgically remove the foot and have a prosthetic and recover from that. You know, So when you think about the number of people she would have would have to be in on this to have and then to have dropped the foot in the ocean and to you know what I mean, like to actually. And to have it found, yeah, yeah. And to have it so degraded and they found like lots of marine microorganisms like in the tissue, which they can prove they they're pretty sure they can date it to almost 100 days that had a bit that the foot had been in the ocean.

1:01:29 I mean, you're not chopping off a foot and then dropping it the same day. You know, it's going to take time to recover to have your prosthetic, prosthetic leg foot attached, you know, and all these sorts of things. Like I just the thought of all that doesn't really make sense to me at all. Saying that. So I think she's dead. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. But I mean then that now there's left the situation of twenty $25 million has been stolen from about 60 odd people and it's getting that money back to, you know, or trying to get back some of that money to these people.

1:02:01 There was an Ave. that we'll I was looking at that with self managed super funds. There is a process in this to regulate it in terms of they've got to audit it every 12 months. So she had other people helping her in this situation. And so the auditors that she was using to look at these, a question is, as a person who's investing all that amount of money, why are you not having your audited independently? She, I think, was offering up an independent auditor who did this process. So they're a bit liable because they didn't pick up any of this stuff.

1:02:34 There wasn't a red flag put out there at all. Yeah, and biggest red flag of a simple 6 digit number rather than 8 digit number. Yes. So they weren't doing their due date. There was actually a financial advisor that I found who said that any good financial advisor, any half decent financial advisor would can log into the background of these COMSEC accounts and check on their process. Right? As an auditor, that's what your job is right? You literally like that is 101 auditing of super super self managed supers.

1:03:05 That was not done by this company because they would have been logged in and gone. There's no account. So there's lots of question marks over where this money, this money isn't just just Melissa Catix like crime. You know what I mean? There's other people who have stuffed up here for sure. I mean, look, we don't we can't all be financial gurus and know how to, you know, operate our super funds and things. But to me, if you don't know enough then you shouldn't be pulling it out of a managed self, but you know out of a fund that is reputable and handing it over to someone either.

1:03:37 Yeah, without doing your own due diligence and having somebody to look into it. So ASIC have employed and I think like the the AFP as well, have employed, employed a forensic accountant to kind of go through everything and figure it all out and tease out what was real, which wasn't much and what wasn't. They were then able to, you know, they've obviously got a lot of her possessions that were really valuable. They've been able to, I mean all of her jewellery now has gone to auction. Her clothing has been sold.

1:04:10 They've tried to recoup as much like their houses and their penthouse and all this other stuff was sold and they've been able to recoup. I think it was now as of literally 2 days ago it is they've been able to recoup $0.36 to the dollar of, of the investors money. So they've been looking to try and recoup as much of this money as possible because these people, this was their retirement. They've got nothing left. They're gonna have to work for, you know, a really long time to try and recoup all of this money.

1:04:43 And so they're now looking into like, I guess in a way, fraudulent tax payments that Melissa made under her company Maliva, which were not legitimate because she never like what she was submitting wasn't real. So technically, that money that she's paid to the Ato was for illegitimate payments. Yeah. And yeah, they. So the Ato actually owe her estate that money back. I can't find anywhere. I can't find a dollar amount anywhere. But apparently it's quite a significant amount of money. So hopefully that'll give some more money.

1:05:21 Yeah, top it up a bit more. But I mean, people are still not going to come out on top here, are they? If they're, if they've already, how many years later, we're in 2024 now and they've only been able to recoup $0.36 to the dollar. I mean, they're not going to be able to get back all of her, you know, well, first class travel and private jet money and all of the consumable she's she's purchased so. Which, like, on that same front, I mean, I in this Anthony is also collateral damage. Absolutely. I mean, he didn't ask for this, but at the same time he was 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 thoughts are on this because there was a Spotlight interview with him, which, check it out. He got paid 50 grand for that. Yeah. And I just don't think he should have been paid because there's so much money being owed to all these investors that he shouldn't be making money at. That's two to me. Proposed time. Yeah, he should be making money off of that. No, I, I. The only issue with that is that he yes, I know this. I'll say he he's take, he's obviously still looking after a young son of Melissa's and you know that he is a great stepdad to do that and take and take him on.

1:06:32 Although I believe there's another, there's still his biological father who also should have access, but he he needs to provide for him. But he can go out and get work and be, he's a very good hairdresser. He we worked for Joe Bailey. Joe Bailey. Bailey breeds prawns, prawns the. Prawns have got to be bringing some money. Oh, and surely that DJ giggle bring him in with his 300, with his 300 and 2020 views or whatever it is a. Few more after I've been on there.

1:07:01 I've added added to the counter fair bit over the last week while we've been researching. This really gets me in the mood. Grab a wine, grab a wine and have a listen to the album. It's it's comedy gold. I was just saying to Emma before we started recording that it reminds me of my 7 year old son who every night makes up a song for me and he so he will often get out the the iPad and play a song and then he'll sing to it and make his own music up. That, ladies and gentlemen, is exactly what this 30 plus year old man, 40 year old man is creating and and recording.

1:07:35 I'm going to put it out there because I've I've seen Brody's musical styling. Yes, I'm going to say Brody's way better at it than Anthony Coletti, hands down. Oh, it's it's. Pure gold it is. It's great. It's actually great, yeah. Yeah, man, have we? Can I just tell you one of the this is another bit of like. So do you know the name of his breeding company for his? Prom. Oh no, I don't go slippery little. Suckers. What is wrong with that man? Ohh, that's great. That's too good, too, too good. Alright, well, I guess that brings us to the end of another episode for for this week.

1:08:15 So quick, so quick, yet you know. I mean, there's so much more out there on this case, too. I mean, it's. But, yeah, it's one without a solid ending. Because it is. Please tell us what you think. Yeah. Did she commit, commit suicide? Was she murdered? Is there something out there that we don't know about or what lovely island is she hopping around on? Yeah. Literally. Literally. But yeah, just yet another piece of shit though, stealing money off people. I just can't. Stealing money off her friends and family?

1:08:48 That's OK. We haven't even mentioned she did this to her own parents. Yeah, that's awful. I really, that's just she she really has dubbed them big time. They've come out OK, OK in this. Now they've, they've had some pretty good lawyers themselves and managed to get there, basically got get pretty much all of their investment back, but not without the, you know, the, the dividends and things that they probably would have thought they were getting from any of this. Yeah. And they thought they had a place to live for life and now they don't.

1:09:17 That's it. Yeah. So, yeah. Believable. Yeah. All. Right, well, next week we are going to be investigating and having a chat about the Port Arthur massacre. That's a really heavy. It's gonna be heavy. Yeah. That's that's a big one, yeah. So, yeah, if you, you know, stay tuned for that. Yeah, we'd love to have you back next week. Any feedback is more than welcome. DMS on Instagram have a follow of us over on Tiktok. We welcome any comments. And, you know, if you haven't subscribed already, that is the best way for us to really get this podcast out to more and more people.

1:09:55 So we'd really appreciate it if you could. Yeah, hit the follow, hit the subscribe button on whatever app that you use. That's huge. If you can do that for us, that's great. And it means that you get notification of our next episode, which is always on Tuesdays. Yep, Tuesday mornings love it. Yeah, love a Tuesday morning. All right. Thanks everyone for joining us for another episode and we'll see you next week. See you next week, everyone. Stay curious. Crime besties. What's your favorite song by Pause on, No pause, pause off, sorry, pause off.

1:10:45 Who does? He think he is spent an inordinate amount of time listening to his shit. We're probably like the only people who've listened to his albums since. I think we might be because oh, it's a bit of a light out sound asleep. OK. You ready, guys? We're going to get up and then I'm going to go on two weeks holiday, OK? And you go around the side, we'll go around the front. Me, me, me, me, me. No, no, no. We don't have any proof or any efforts. No, no, we'll just get them. Yeah, don't worry about them.

1:11:26 I'm going on holidays soon. Yeah. They've got millions of dollars of jewelry, luxury items, clothes and everything. I can't wait. Oh, yeah, That's good enough for me. Oh my.

1:12:03 Did you just wake up like?