Melissa Caddick, who fashioned herself as a financial advisor, deceived 55 friends and relatives out of a staggering $23 million from 2012 to 2020, funding her lavish lifestyle through an elaborate investment scam.
Liquidators tasked with recovering these defrauded funds have now reached the end of their mission, with the Federal Court authorizing a final payout to the affected investors.
According to barrister Nicola Bailey during a Wednesday court session, victims have already received approximately $7.3 million in two separate distributions, which equates to a recovery of 31.4 cents on the dollar.
Justice Brigitte Markovic has approved the allocation of a third disbursement, totaling just under $100,000.
This final payout will be directed to investors who were not eligible for a $3.5 million class action settlement that the court sanctioned back in April 2025.
That action was run on behalf of self-managed superannuation funds who were defrauded by the 49-year-old.
Five auditors accused of failing to identify fraudulent documents made the multimillion-dollar payout but did not admit liability.
Bailey said on Wednesday 23 of Caddick’s investors did not participate in the class action.
The liquidators from Jones Partners supported giving the extra funds solely to those who had not received a slice of the settlement, she said.
“‘(That) is the scenario which best seeks to restore the balance to the extent possible with such a small pot,” she told the court.
Investors eligible for the settlement had wished for more money from the liquidator’s pool of cash.
However, no one had objected in court to divvying up the remaining $100,000 only between non-class action investors, Bailey said.
Combining these approved funds and the class action payout, the average return to all investors is 45.5 cents to the dollar.
Justice Markovic approved a further $55,000 payment to Jones Partners to cover its work.
That amount will come out of money clawed back from selling Caddick’s assets including her homes in Edgecliff and Dover Heights in Sydney’s east and luxury items such as jewellery.
The 49-year-old engaged in “a sham or facade” using her company Maliver to transfer investor funds, Justice Markovic found in November 2021 in a separate Federal Court lawsuit brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
Maliver was used to conceal that victims’ funds were spent on Caddick’s lavish lifestyle instead of being used to buy shares for their self-managed superannuation funds, the judge said.
Coroner Elizabeth Ryan in May 2023 ruled Caddick was dead, but she was unable to determine the cause because most of her body had not been found.
The fraudster’s badly decomposed right foot, which was still attached to a running shoe, washed up on a beach on the south coast of NSW in February 2021.
Caddick’s husband Anthony Koletti was the last person to see her alive and declared her missing.
He withheld information relating to his wife’s disappearance and could not be ruled out from being involved, the coroner found.
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