The response from ASIC came in relation to a question on notice from Liberal senator Slade Brockman around when the regulator was first made aware of problems surrounding the Sydney businesswoman, who is missing, presumed dead and allegedly perpetrated a fraud of more than $20 million against her former clients.
“With respect to the high profile case of Melissa Caddick, can you please advise when ASIC was first made aware of issues with respect to her, either through a complaint or another form of feedback and what ASIC did as a result of this notice?” Senator Brockman asked.
The regulator conceded it was first made aware of a complaint against Ms Caddick in November 2019, nearly a year before it acted to freeze her assets in the Federal Court.
“ASIC first received a report from an anonymous source regarding Melissa Caddick on 26 November 2019,” the regulator said.
“ASIC receives hundreds of complaints each month. The report on 26 November did not allege there had been a financial loss.”
ASIC said it did not begin investigating Ms Caddick until more than six months later, when a second complaint was received in early June 2020.
“Following an investigation, ASIC successfully applied to the court on 10 November 2020 for asset freezing and other orders and executed a search warrant with the assistance of the [Federal Police] on 11 November 2020,” the regulator said.
Ms Caddick went missing from her home in Sydney’s eastern suburbs shortly after the police raid took place, and her partial remains were found in February this year. ASIC is still pursuing the wind-up of her company Maliver in the courts with a view to returning any available funds to investors.
Auditors who were involved in auditing a number of SMSFs managed by Ms Caddick may also find themselves hit by a potential class action.
At least it was 12 months less than they took to act in relation to Storm which was apparently 2 years. They have moved from completely incompetent to incompetent. The other issue may be that Caddick was in Sydney so they knew someone who had lost money and therefore they remain completely incompetent.
Bernie Madoff died in prison recently and prosecutors were able to recover over 80% of the funds for clients that put money with Madoff. So that is not a bad outcome. Only a 20% loss for investors. You could say that Maddoff has outperformed the coronavirus crash of March 2020 as his clients only lost 20%, whereas the coronavirus stockmarket crash of March 2020 was a drop of way more than 20%. Hopefully, Melissa Caddick’s clients get most of their money back like Madoff’s clients did.
So, who made her disappear and who has the money? How do the clients get their money back?