Found Deceased Australia - Melissa Caddick, 49, Sydney, NSW, 12 Nov 2020 #6

[SLouTh]

I think she had the spreadsheets set up for each client with all the formulas at the ready.
All she needed to do each month or whenever a statement was due was to see the best performing shares for the previous month and insert the new date, amounts the shares were now worth and merge all fields.
It would automatically complete all the rest of the data. I think it would take her no longer than an hour a month to do this for all 60 accounts...

Thanks @Mr Murphy for explaining this...

I tried to bring up "formulas" in the old threads....but you have explained it a lot better...
It would be interesting for Investors to see their statements side by side and to compare if the same formula was used "across the board" each month? Or if a pattern emerged across a few months / or a year???

The longest part each month, for MC, was probably the actual "printing' of all the fake documents.....

The thing I find most staggering is that Mr Gleeson has not found a single investment for any Investor over that entire time period....... the fraud and blatant stealing must have been MC's intent from day 1 ...... How does one even "think that entire process up"???? A fraud mastermind.....

 

[JLZ]

Great find @Snooper Dooper ..... explains perfectly, the possibility of MC "gambling" with the "share market"......

However as MC didn't invest one single Investor dollar in any shares.... does it still fit our theory????

However all of the traits mentioned above suit MC to a "T" and possibly she did this with shares in own name ???? Usually if there is one "addiction" there are more addictive behaviors.....

BBM. That all the documents sent investors were fake, doesn't mean she wasn't investing/gambling some of their money for herself.

 

[SLouTh]

BBM. That all the documents sent investors were fake, doesn't mean she wasn't investing/gambling some of their money for herself.

Oh she was definitely investing for herself..... and possibly gambling too.... for herself......
It is a colossal betrayal of her Investors...... and it is hard to get my head around the fact that MC met with them on a personal level, invited them for dinner etc all while stealing from them.....

Edit to add -MC didn't just use some of their money but ALL of their money...

 

[SLouTh]

I see that Hogan Lovells have officially ended their representation of MC on the 1st March 2021.

File details - applications for file (comcourts.gov.au)

 

[JLZ]

Oh she was definitely investing for herself..... and possibly gambling too.... for herself......
It is a colossal betrayal of her Investors...... and it is hard to get my head around the fact that MC met with them on a personal level, invited them for dinner etc all while stealing from them.....

Edit to add -MC didn't just use some of their money but ALL of their money...

I said "some" because I was thinking that she didn't invest/gamble all of it; she spent some.

 

[SLouTh]

I said "some" because I was thinking that she didn't invest/gamble all of it; she spent some.

Yes agree... that why I said "used" their money..... sorry, badly communicated on my part.... I was also including the spending in that as well......

In the grand scheme of things, it seems like not that much, of the millions of dollars that she was given by investors was actually invested at all ...... and a lot was spent on lifestyle......

I still have my suspicions that some of the money is still unaccounted for???

Another thing I find amazing is that ASIC went to the Court with old bank statements to freeze MC's accounts ....they used the ones from the period they were investigating...... surely they could have obtained a more up to date version of MC's Bank Records??? to present to the Judge???

PS I didn't even notice you said "some" .... I was still getting my head around the fact that MC seems to have "used" every single cent of Investor's money for her own gain.... so sorry for that JLZ.....

 

[JLZ]

Yes agree... that why I said "used" their money..... sorry, badly communicated on my part.... I was also including the spending in that as well......

In the grand scheme of things, it seems like not that much, of the millions of dollars that she was given by investors was actually invested at all ...... and a lot was spent on lifestyle......

I still have my suspicions that some of the money is still unaccounted for???

Another thing I find amazing is that ASIC went to the Court with old bank statements to freeze MC's accounts ....they used the ones from the period they were investigating...... surely they could have obtained a more up to date version of MC's Bank Records??? to present to the Judge???

PS I didn't even notice you said "some" .... I was still getting my head around the fact that MC seems to have "used" every single cent of Investor's money for her own gain.... so sorry for that JLZ.....

Do I recall that they only approached a small number (less than a dozen) banks that Melissa was known in the past to have had accounts with? I saw that also with another missing persons case, and there are so many banks in Australia let alone other financial institutions. (I think they should inquire more thoroughly.)

PS You're fine . . . you're doing good work. That with Pinpoint Publishing, I really do wonder what Melissa was paying them for, since they were more or less in the same business.

 

[SLouTh]

The initial complaint to ASIC of MC using someone else's AFSL for Maliver seems almost insignificant compared to what they have found in the investigation ...... it sure was a "can of worms"!

There appears to be so much "fraud" on so many different levels..... It must be like "Pandora's Box' for ASIC /AFP and Mr Gleeson...... and if MC was still alive I'm sure there would have been a long list of "Criminal Charges" to be laid against her..... and even more than ASIC / AFP first suspected... IMO

 

[SLouTh]

Do I recall that they only approached a small number (less than a dozen) banks that Melissa was known in the past to have had accounts with? I saw that also with another missing persons case, and there are so many banks in Australia let alone other financial institutions. (I think they should inquire more thoroughly.)

PS You're fine . . . you're doing good work. That with Pinpoint Publishing, I really do wonder what Melissa was paying them for, since they were more or less in the same business.

Yes they only seemed to search the "major" banks of Australia.....

IMO MC used "Pinpoint" to broker her mortgage/s with the Bank.... She used them to put forward her fake figures directly to the Bank on her behalf.... an extra step to ensure self preservation with the Bank perhaps??? And to bypass applying for the loan herself??? Will be interesting to see if anything comes out on how she was able to deceive the banks etc.....

 

[SouthAussie]

It was in the mainstream news a few times. I think because of the use of other person’s licence and possibly someone else might have also had cause to lodge a complaint to ASIC. I know I read August. I will try and find the source again today.

As Estelle said, ASIC didn't tell Melissa.

This DT article says that ASIC thought the first Melissa knew about the investigation was on 10th Nov at 6am when AFP rolled up at her front door. They didn't tell her about the investigation or the court orders to freeze the accounts because they didn't want "further appropriation and dissipation of Australian consumer’s funds”.

No Cookies | Daily Telegraph
December 16, 2020

 

[JLZ]

Yes they only seemed to search the "major" banks of Australia.....

IMO MC used "Pinpoint" to broker her mortgage/s with the Bank.... She used them to put forward her fake figures directly to the Bank on her behalf.... an extra step to ensure self preservation with the Bank perhaps??? And to bypass applying for the loan herself??? Will be interesting to see if anything comes out on how she was able to deceive the banks etc.....

Does the time fit though? I think you said the payment was quite recent, no further back than 2018. Perhaps she was refinancing?

I wondered about some sort of commission arrangement between them. They do financial advice but only one of their staff out of about twenty is AFSL-licensed (listed under a group license).

Edit: oh yeah and they have a page on their site listing recommended businesses and I wonder if they charge for the advertisement.

 

[SouthAussie]

Estelle, what's your source for that? (You might know where that information is coming from, but the rest of us have no way of checking and verifying it unless you give us some information about the source.) Thank you.

I have been looking for a link, because it seems that Melissa probably knew/suspected that she was being investigated (shredding spree in September, just when the ASIC investigation commenced) Not finding the exact info about who told her though. Hopefully Estelle knows where a link is.

ETA see my next post #1114


The Herald has confirmed that ASIC was alerted to Ms Caddick's alleged wrongdoings when they were contacted some months back by another financial planner who was horrified to discover Ms Caddick was using her licence.
"I found out when a potential client of Melissa's did some due diligence on the documents they were provided. ASIC were immediately notified," said the woman, who asked not to be named.
"This was an enormous shock to me personally and very stressful and upsetting. It continues to be so," she said. While the pair had never worked together they had both been employed at Wise Financial Services around 2003-04.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw...elissa-caddick-stole-40m-20201204-p56kn8.html

 

[SLouTh]

Does the time fit though? I think you said the payment was quite recent, no further back than 2018. Perhaps she was refinancing?

Yes true...... I had forgotten the time period of that payment....
Would be interesting to know if she had used them in the past????
Maybe MC also was using them if she was considering purchase of a home in Rose Bay?????

 

[SouthAussie]

This is how Melissa might have suspected/known she would be in ASIC trouble, I think. She was confronted by an investor.


'We called CommSec and they confirmed it was not a real account number ... they said the documents are fake,' the investor told Daily Mail Australia.
'I said, "they can't be, as it has your logo on top" ... She had (allegedly) copied and pasted the lot.'

Daily Mail Australia has independently established the document is not genuine. CommSec doesn't even produce a document called a 'portfolio statement'.
The words 'FY2014-2015' aren't written to the bank's typical style and the disclaimer down the bottom is wrong. (However, Macquarie stocks have enjoyed a meteoric rise, the price almost tripling since 2013.)

The investor said Ms Caddick failed to give them satisfactory answers when they confronted her about the alleged CommSec account. 'This is how the whole thing started with ASIC.'

Melissa Caddick: Stunning CommSec slip shows how alleged con worked | Daily Mail Online

 

[Trooper]

Yes true...... I had forgotten the time period of that payment....
Would be interesting to know if she had used them in the past????
Maybe MC also was using them if she was considering purchase of a home in Rose Bay?????

I think it was part of her 'story' that she was considering buying that Rose Bay place.. perhaps when she went to Canturi jewellers to check up on her $100,000.00 necklace they were creating for her.. maybe Mr Canturi dropped the info that he was in the bidding for that 32 million place and Melissa , curious about what people with real money get up to, and hoping to collect some moneyed bidders should it go to auction , contacted the real estate folks to get a bit of a look around, which one has to be somewhat backed up by the appearance of money to do that..

( Canturi eventually was the successful bidder.. )

 

[Redrunner]

I think it was part of her 'story' that she was considering buying that Rose Bay place.. perhaps when she went to Canturi jewellers to check up on her $100,000.00 necklace they were creating for her.. maybe Mr Canturi dropped the info that he was in the bidding for that 32 million place and Melissa , curious about what people with real money get up to, and hoping to collect some moneyed bidders should it go to auction , contacted the real estate folks to get a bit of a look around, which one has to be somewhat backed up by the appearance of money to do that..

( Canturi eventually was the successful bidder.. )

What a hustler, it really makes me think about where she learn all of her "ways' from?

 

[Trooper]

What a hustler, it really makes me think about where she learn all of her "ways' from?

Her entire scam relied on a steady supply of gullible sheep to fleece. That meant she had to hang around where people with money , disposable money income, hung around. You don't find fleecing sheep at McDonalds, or the local bus stop.

Big money house auctions, school parent days, racehorse owners and punters , 'charity ' events, art gallery openings, ... etc.

 

[Mr Murphy]

I think it was part of her 'story' that she was considering buying that Rose Bay place.. perhaps when she went to Canturi jewellers to check up on her $100,000.00 necklace they were creating for her.. maybe Mr Canturi dropped the info that he was in the bidding for that 32 million place and Melissa , curious about what people with real money get up to, and hoping to collect some moneyed bidders should it go to auction , contacted the real estate folks to get a bit of a look around, which one has to be somewhat backed up by the appearance of money to do that..

( Canturi eventually was the successful bidder.. )

Wow - I did not realise Canturi was the successful bidder on the property she enquired on.... that's very interesting.

 

[SLouTh]

I think it was part of her 'story' that she was considering buying that Rose Bay place.. perhaps when she went to Canturi jewellers to check up on her $100,000.00 necklace they were creating for her.. maybe Mr Canturi dropped the info that he was in the bidding for that 32 million place and Melissa , curious about what people with real money get up to, and hoping to collect some moneyed bidders should it go to auction , contacted the real estate folks to get a bit of a look around, which one has to be somewhat backed up by the appearance of money to do that..

( Canturi eventually was the successful bidder.. )

Thanks Troops I have been wondering about why she looked at that property.......

 

[Estelle]

"...this woman, who she met three months earlier during one of her regular trips to Aspen, had entrusted $2.5m to Caddick’s boutique financial advisory firm.

“I will take care of you,” Caddick emailed the woman, known as Witness C in court documents, on 3 April, 2020. “I am being cautious and taking opportunities when they present.”

The woman came to consider herself friends with Caddick. The pair had teenage sons who attended the same school in Sydney’s eastern suburbs and they had dined together.

So it was slightly awkward when, only a few months after investing with Caddick and her firm Maliver, she asked to withdraw her funds to purchase a property
But Caddick was good to her word. Within days of Witness C making the request in August, $2.8m was returned to her account “like clockwork”, she said. In four months, she had made more than $300,000 profit.

‘I will take care of you’: how Melissa Caddick allegedly siphoned millions from clients before disappearance
The reason I do not often include a link is because SMH is paywalled.

But if I remember correctly this particular woman said she then felt guilty in making $300,000 in three months and told MC that she had been told at the dentist that MC was using this other woman's licence and it had been reported to ASIC.

I would be very surprised if ASIC ever gave anyone any notice that they were going to raid you.