The new owners of Melissa Caddick’s mansion claimed they had no idea it once belonged to the scammer with a strange change already being detected on the property.
Caddick’s mansion in Dover Heights, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, was seized for $9.8 million nearly two years after the scammer went missing in November 2020.
Proceeds from the sale will go to pay for the alleged $23 million he stole from investors, including friends and family, through his Ponzi scheme.
The new owners of Melissa Caddick’s Dover Heights mansion claim they had no idea it was the former residence of the missing con artist
Proceeds from the sale of the property will go to pay for the alleged $23 million Caddick stole from investors.
Property records indicate that Tongna purchased the property in October.
He is from the eastern suburbs and a retired businessman, according to records.
A man and a woman were seen outside the mansion earlier this week after recently moving in.
The woman revealed that the couple had no idea of the story behind the house.
“We just moved. We didn’t really know about the house (history) until we bought it,” he said. The Sunday Telegraph.
‘At the end of the day, it’s just a house to us.’
A new addition has already been spotted on the property, with a bag of chillies mysteriously tied to the front door.
It is unknown if it was put there by the occupants or not.
In certain cultures, chili peppers are placed in a section of a house to drive out evil spirits from a property.
They are also used to ward off the evil eye, a superstitious belief that bad luck brings someone when a person looks at them with feelings of disgust or envy.
Earlier this month, Caddick’s victims reached an agreement in Federal Court on how they would divide the scammer’s estate.
The group has also tried to block Caddick’s parents, Barbara and Ted Grimley.
The couple want to use some of the money from the estate to pay off the mortgage on an apartment in eastern Sydney that their daughter bought in their name.
Vanessa Whittaker, representing the trustees in charge of liquidating the 49-year-old’s estate, told the court that the “overwhelming majority” of investors had agreed to split the funds equally.
A bag of chili peppers was seen tied to the front door of the former con woman’s mansion. In some cultures, chili peppers are placed in a section of a house to drive out evil spirits (file image)
Melissa Caddick with her husband Anthony Koletti, who was forced to evict their Dover Heights home when it was put up for sale.
The agreement avoids a protracted legal fight between those who felt they should have been given priority access to estate funds.
“The result is that out-of-pocket investors, the vast majority… have informed the trustees that they agree to a pari-passu approach,” said Ms. Whittaker.
She told the court that 54 of the 55 investors had accepted the ‘fair’ process established by the trustees, while the last one simply did not respond.
The move comes a month after Judge Brigitte Markovic warned there was a “shrinking reserve of money” that should not be wasted on legal fees.
More than $23 million is still owed to investors in Maliver, Caddick’s financial services company, which the Australian Securities and Investment Commission says was an elaborate Ponzi scheme.
Caddick disappeared from his Dover Heights home in November 2020, a day after ASIC and NSW police raided the property.
The corporate watchdog says Caddick misappropriated money from investors to finance his lavish lifestyle, with investigators seizing luxury items including jewelry, watches, designer clothing and shoes.
She was pronounced dead four months after she went missing in February 2021 when a decomposing foot was found on Bournda beach, 400km south of Sydney.
An ongoing forensic investigation is trying to discover the cause and manner of his presumed death, with the results expected to be released in April.
Caddick’s remains were found on Bournda beach (pictured) three months after he went missing.