Victims of Melissa Caddick get their first payment after Sydney scammer stole $23 million
Victims of Melissa Caddick get their first payment after Sydney scammer stole $23 million
- Melissa Caddick’s victim received their first payment
- Caddick stole more than $23 million from 55 victims
The victims of notorious Sydney scammer Melissa Caddick have received the first refund of their stolen money.
Accounting firm Jones Partners shared a total of $3 million with Caddick’s 55 victims after they recovered the money by selling the fraudster’s assets.
Most of the interim distribution came from the sale of Caddick’s beloved home in Dover Heights, which sold for $9.8 million last spring.
Caddick disappeared from her Dover Heights home in November 2020 after defrauding her investors — mostly family and friends — out of more than $23 million.
A corona investigation in May revealed that Caddick died after her decomposing foot washed up on a beach on the NSW south coast in February 2021. But the date, cause or location of her death remains a mystery.
The first repayment to victims of Melissa Caddick (pictured with her husband, Anthony Koletti) has been made
The 55 victims got a share of $3 million recovered from the sale of Caddick’s assets (pictured, one of Caddick’s seized necklaces)
“In many Ponzi schemes, it is not unusual for investors to receive no returns, so we are pleased to be able to make this distribution and anticipate further significant distributions in the future,” said Bruce Gleeson, director of Jones Partners.
Another of Caddick’s prized properties, a penthouse in Edgecliff, will go on sale this spring.
Caddick bought the three-bedroom apartment in 2016 for $2.55 million and convinced her parents to pay $1 million for a third of the property.
But instead of using the money to pay off the mortgage, she splashed it all out on her lavish lifestyle of fast cars, luxury vacations, and designer clothes.
Her parents were recently paid $950,000 to vacate the property after a bitter lawsuit with their daughter’s victims.
Double Bay’s Richardson & Wrench will lead the Edgecliff sale with the real estate campaign kicking off in September.
Caddick disappeared from her home in Dover Heights, eastern Sydney, in November 2020 after swindling more than $23 million from her friends and family.
A coronial inquest in May found Caddick died but could not determine the date, cause or location of her death.
Most of the interim distribution came from the sale of Caddick’s beloved home in Dover Heights (above) which sold for $9.8 million last spring
A coronial examination in May found Caddick (above) died but could not determine the date, cause or location of her death
Her victims thought she was investing the money, but instead she blew the money on designer clothes, jewelry, overseas travel, multi-million dollar properties, and cars.
Jones Partners is tasked with unraveling the scam to determine how much Caddick’s victims owe.
More than $10 million of the stolen money has been recovered through the sale of Caddick’s assets — including cars worth $361,000 and artwork and jewelry worth a combined $884,000.