Melissa Caddick investors likely to face ‘significant shortfall’ after being defrauded $25m
The mystery behind suspected Sydney fraudster, Melissa Caddick, is deepening following the grisly discovery of a second body part expected to be linked in the coming days through DNA testing.
The remains were found just hours after police revealed a foot belonging to the 49-year-old had washed up, on a remote stretch of beach on the NSW south coast.
The remains found last night at Mollymook are now undergoing analysis with officers close to the case telling 9News they’re likely linked to Caddick.
“There was mass of a fairly bleak substance that had a really peculiar stench to it,” local resident Craig O’Donnel told 9News.
Last night’s discovery turned up 200 kilometres north of where three teenagers found a shoe with remains inside last Sunday.
Experts had predicted a body which entered the water in Dover Heights on November 11 — the day Melissa went missing — could feasibly drift that far.
While the police investigation has now turned to compiling a report for the coroner, the probe into Caddick’s alleged fraud is continuing with the watchdog releasing a statement saying: “ASIC’s priority is to seek the return of funds to investors… the hearing should go ahead as a priority.”
Experts have told 9News many of Caddick’s investors, some of whom were also close friends of the missing woman, are unlikely to be reimbursed.
Melissa Caddick flaunted her luxury lifestyle with expensive clothes and pricey holidays making the seizing of assets to retrieve funds a near impossible task.
“Money which is spent on those things is gone, never to be recovered,” Innis Cull, Bankruptcy trustee and Liquidator from Pitcher Partners said.
Caddick’s investors have now been left out of pocket close to $25 million.
“There’s going to be a significant shortfall for the investors. Investors will line up behind the cost of the investigation,” Mr Cull said.
A hearing has been set for April when the Federal Court will also look to examine people close to Caddick’s business.
