Caddick investors receive $3m in first payouts

Following the liquidation of Ms Caddick’s assets, including the $9.8 million sale of her Dover Heights property, 55 investors were paid a total of $3 million.

Jones Partners, the firm that was appointed as the liquidators for her company, Maliver, and receivers of her property in December 2020, made the initial distribution to the victims.

Further proceeds are expected from the sale of an Edgecliff penthouse apartment, which Ms Caddick also owned.

“In many Ponzi schemes, it is not unusual for investors to receive no return, so we are pleased to be able to make this distribution and anticipate further significant distributions in the future,” said Bruce Gleeson, principal at Jones Partners.

“We have also recently taken possession of the Edgecliff penthouse and are presently preparing it for sale.

“The Edgecliff penthouse in the Eastpoint Tower, Edgecliff, is in a prime location and the sale of it will importantly enable us to make further significant distributions to investors.”

Mr Gleeson added that the sale will be handled by Richardson & Wrench Double Bay, with a target date for listing of early September.

Ms Caddick was last seen at her Dover Heights home on the evening of Wednesday, 11 November 2020, and was reported missing two days later.

Ms Caddick, while posing as an adviser, allegedly defrauded 74 investors out of some $24 million.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission had raised concerns that Maliver may have been providing financial services without an AFSL, or with the AFSL of another company without authorisation, to unlawfully deal with investor funds.

The Federal Court made interim orders against Ms Caddick and Maliver in November 2020, including a prohibition against her leaving Australia and removing assets held in Australia.

But Ms Caddick had not shown at the first case management hearing of the matter, having vanished.

Three months later, the 49-year-old’s decomposing foot was found on Bournda Beach on the NSW South Coast.

In November 2021, the Federal Court confirmed that Melissa Caddick and Maliver carried on a financial services business without holding an Australian Financial Services Licence, contrary to section 911A of the Corporations Act.

In May 2023, Deputy State Coroner Elizabeth Ryan ruled that Ms Caddick is dead, yet the precise circumstances surrounding her death remain unresolved.

“I have concluded that Melissa Caddick is deceased. However, a more problematical issue is whether the evidence is sufficient to enable a positive finding as to how she died and when or where this happened,” Ms Ryan said.