Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said despite Melissa Caddick’s disappearance from her home in Sydney’s eastern suburbs on 12 November, police did not yet believe she had come to any harm.
“We are treating the case as if she’s alive,” Mr Fuller said in a radio interview this week.
“We’re still actively looking for CCTV, downloading information from her car’s computers and door-knocking where she might be.”
Mr Fuller expressed optimism in police finding a lead on Ms Caddick’s whereabouts.
“In 2021, it’s difficult to go missing and not be found given the electronic footprint we leave behind and cameras and a whole range of other electronics we have,” he said.
Provisional liquidators were appointed to Ms Caddick’s company, Maliver, in December last year, and are due to provide a report to the Federal Court on the extent of her debts to investors by 15 February.
The corporate regulator had applied for Ms Caddick’s business and personal property to be liquidated after concerns that the company was providing financial services without a licence and that “investor funds may have been unlawfully dealt with”.
ASIC said concerns had also been raised that Ms Caddick was using the AFSL of another firm without authorisation.
The court orders prevented Ms Caddick from accessing assets held in her or the company’s name, other than for the payment of living expenses of $1,700 per week for her husband and son.
Mr Fuller said ASIC’s investigation into Ms Caddick’s dealings related to “perhaps tens of millions of dollars” in investment fraud.
“There are potentially hundreds and hundreds of victims out there,” he said.
In December, the court heard investors had paid more than $13 million to Ms Caddick before she disappeared.
ASIC is continuing its investigation into Ms Caddick and Maliver, with the next Federal Court hearing set for 22 February.
She gave excellent returns to her Clients !!! and apparantly didnt need to fill out an SOA ever !!! Wow superwomen
If someone advises you of returns that are well in excess of the market norm, you need to be aware. If it sounds too good to be true? Greed is a motivational tool for all crooks. Didn’t anyone of her clients ever check the existence of their investment? No amount of regulation etc will stop this kind of activity, long jail sentences might deter some, but not all. Law is too lenient on these types of crimes.
FARSEA will now suggest that the general public need to all do an ethics exam for $600 each.
“ASIC is continuing its investigation into Ms Caddick and Maliver…..” Made me laugh.
They can forget about looking at CCTV footage and wasting time door knocking. She’s sitting on a beach somewhere, in a tax haven with no extradition to Australia. Probably sipping on a cocktail. I hope the lowlife chokes on a piece of pineapple. That’s where they should be looking because she is long gone. This is proof that there is no correlation between the level of education and honesty. My bet is that she passed the FASEA Ethics Exam. Just goes to show what a farce it is. A pointless exercise in being seen to be doing something to keep the public happy.
How did Ms Caddick get her clients.
Please help:
For the last 6 years this person has pretended to be a financial advisor under the nose of ASIC.
Clearly ASIC never checked the market for unregistered people pretending to be advisors even though they charge fees to financial advisors to maintain a register.
Possibly $40 million stolen.
ASIC needs help.
Smoko pretends he wasn’t even aware of the Shipton theft within.
When the government say they are here to help they destroy everything!
Can ASIC explain to me how the compliance regime which purportedly regulates the financial services industry can protect any investor from the likes of Ms Caddick? I think not. It is obvious that regulation only impacts upon honest participants who struggle with the paperwork and cost and does nothing to stop crooks being crooks.
It’s worse than that Patrick. The compliance regime makes it too complicated and expensive to deal with honest participants. It actually pushes consumers towards the crooks.
Wonder if one of her ‘clients’ didn’t want to rely on ASIC or the AFP but organised their own form of punishment…?
Thank you ifa for correctly reporting this person as “someone who posed as a financial adviser”. Unlike ABC (Jesse Dorsett) and Fairfax (Kate McClymont) who deceptively reported her as being a financial adviser.
ABC and Fairfax have pursued an indiscriminate vilification campaign against all financial advisers for some time. It’s not surprising public trust in the media is at an all time low when organisations like these have joined the race to the gutter.
Exactly, those two organizations take the high moral ground on issues like Trump and how Murdoch outlets treated him but they do not apply the same standards when it comes to reporting on business matters. Their policy is “all private financial entities are suss and we will report any story from that point of view”
Meanwhile, the public go, “Another financial adviser ripping off clients!” You can put compliance measures in place till the proverbial cows come home, but you can NEVER get the crook to play by the rules!” Laws only control the law-abiding.