In the heart of every con artist, there is the fervent belief that the jackpot is just around the corner, one last lucky roll of the dice after which every one of your victims will be paid back.
For Sydney’s fraudster Melissa Caddick that last roll of the dice was a high-stakes gamble on cryptocurrency.
“If I get the big jackpot, I can pay everybody back and then it will all go away – but that’s sort of the fantasy they exhibit,” forensic psychiatrist Olav Nielssen said.
In a series of revelations in the new podcast Liar Liar: Melissa Caddick and the Missing Millions launched on Monday, the investigation examines the con artist’s desperate plunges on currency and international share trading as well as her entanglement with a lender of last resort.
In November 2020, the corporate regulator raided her eastern suburbs home as part of an investigation into Caddick’s giant Ponzi scheme, in which she stole $23 million from investors.
Among other revelations to be explored over the series are Caddick’s early criminal endeavours and details of how millions of dollars of investors’ funds flowed through more than 30 bank accounts of Caddick’s and out again to fund her life of extraordinary excesses.
And for the first time, listeners will hear the voice of Caddick herself as she tries to cajole a potential victim into investing in her massive Ponzi scheme.
The ring Melissa Caddick bought with her parents’ money was…
