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Missing Sydney alleged fraudster Melissa Caddick has been hit with dozens of charges weeks after her decomposed foot washed up on a remote beach on the NSW south coast.
In a bizarre twist, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission has filed 38 charges against the mother – despite police believing she is dead.
These include 19 counts of falsely claiming to have a financial services licence, 18 counts of dishonest conduct in relation to financial products and services, and one count of not holding an Australian financial services licence when required.
According to The Australian, the charges were filed in Sydney Local Court on Friday.
Ms Caddick vanished from her Dover Heights home in Sydney’s east in the early hours of November 12 just two days after the corporate watchdog and federal police raided the property.
The 49-year-old is accused of swindling millions of dollars out of victims, mostly family and friends, through her financial business Maliver Pty Ltd.
She then used the cash to fund her lavish lifestyle, which included luxury goods and expensive holidays, police allege.
Her son told police he heard the front door close about 5.30am the day she vanished.
Despite combing through hours of CCTV footage, including from surrounding streets in the affluent cliffside suburb, there has been no trace of her since.
Ms Caddick’s Asics shoe and decomposed foot washed up 400km from her home on a south coast beach in February – three months after she vanished.
No further remains have been found despite extensive searches, including combing more than 6000sq m in the ocean below the Dover Heights cliffs.
Several leading criminologists have raised the idea that the mother was murdered, and police have repeatedly said they cannot rule out foul play.
But they are leaning toward the more likely scenario that she took her own life.
Ms Caddick’s $7m Dover Heights home is just a short walk to a cliff face.
Detectives believe she could have entered the water there and her body may have travelled as far as the south coast.
When asked whether she jumped, NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller said in March, “that’s a real difficult one”.
“(But it’s not often) body parts wash up so far south of Sydney and in such good condition given she went missing on or about November 11,” he said.
In February, the court was told liquidators found just $5600 in the 49-year-old’s bank accounts as the investigation continued.
Her father-in-law Rodo Koletti has been vocal since her disappearance, claiming his son – and Ms Caddick’s husband – Anthony is “delusional” about his wife and said he was convinced she was framed.
“He’s going to come crashing down eventually when the reality hits about everything she’s done,” he told 60 Minutes.
There’s no suggestion Ms Caddick’s family have anything to do with her disappearance and death.
The case will be left with the coroner.
The AFP and ASIC have been contacted for comment.
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