The victims of fraudster Melissa Caddick will be paid more than $4m after the Federal Court approved the biggest distribution yet to those swindled by her dodgy investment scheme. The repayment comes following the sale of a slew of her assets and luxury items, with Justice Brigitte Markovic on Wednesday making orders that $4.25m be distributed to fleeced investors.
It represents an increase of 18 cents on the dollar distributed to every wronged investor, and takes the total distribution to investors so far to 32 cents on the dollar. A $3m initial distribution payment, to be shared between 55 investors, was announced last year by accounting firm Jones Partners. Receivers have sold many of Caddick’s assets, including cars, designer jewellery and two multimillion-dollar homes.
Much of the $4.25m distribution comes from the sale of her Edgecliff apartment in March. The luxury eastern suburbs penthouse was sold for an undisclosed sum, after being initially listed for auction at $5.
5m. As well, a 2016 Audi R8 and 2016 Mercedes CLA45 fetched $295,000 and $66,250 at auction respectively. Her luxury $9.
8 million Dover Heights home, where she was last seen in November 2021, was last year sold for $9.8 million. A final distribution of money from the sale of Caddick’s assets is expected towards the end of the year - although that is only expected to represent about one cent on the dollar per investor.
More money is also expected to be distributed following the liquidation of Ms Caddick’s company, Maliver. Caddick operated Maliver without an Australian Financial Services licence, and as part of her scheme she made fictitious taxation returns, which the liquidators are seeking to recoup. Caddick vanished in November 2020, a day after the Australian Securities and Investments Commission raided her Dover Heights over her multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme which she used to fund a luxurious lifestyle.
While posing as a financial adviser, she fleeced in excess $23m from more than 50 investors, many of whom were family and friends. A coroner last year found that Caddick was dead but could not determine her manner or cause of death after a foot washed up on the NSW south coast three months after the fraudster went missing..
