Missing millionaire Melissa Caddick’s father-in-law says his son is ‘deluded’ to think his wife is innocent, and has barely seen his family in eight years.
The financial adviser, 49, vanished on November 12 a day after police raided her $7million Sydney home amid suspicions that she siphoned money from her rich friends and investors.
On Thursday, Caddick’s husband Anthony Kolleti’s father Rodo said his son is in denial and believes the businesswoman has done ‘nothing wrong’.
The tax agent said the 39-year-old is looking to take legal action against consumer watchdog ASIC for searching their $6.1million Dover Heights home and won’t talk to his parents because he believes his phone is bugged.
Ms Caddick’s husband did not tell police or her family that she was missing for more than 30 hours. The couple are pictured together
Anthony Koletti, 38, is understood to be spending his time at his in-laws place in Edgecliff – rather than his missing wife’s $7million mansion. Above, having a coffee in Bondi
‘It’s very traumatic for him, he stopped seeing his family when they got together, it’s divided us,’ Rodo Kolleti told the Daily Telegraph.
‘I’ve seen her four or five times in eight years, she didn’t want anything to do with us.’
According to documents filed in the Federal Court, more than $20million of investor funds, largely comprising the savings of her wealthy friends, trickled into Ms Caddick’s accounts between January 2018 and September 18, 2020.
Financial records within that period show more than $20million went into her account, and all but $700,000 was withdrawn.
Ms Caddick is also accused of doctoring fake CommSec documents showing about 60 clients were making extraordinary returns from trades that did not exist.
When ASIC and the Australian Federal Police raided the clifftop home, they seized about $1million in couture gowns, designer clothes, handbags, shoes and jewellery – all allegedly bought with her client’s life savings.
Ms Caddick’s $7million cliffside home can be ‘possessed’ by receivers under recent court orders
Melissa Caddick, 49, was last seen at her Dover Heights home in Sydney’s east on November 11
Robo Kolletti believes his son has been tricked by his wife, whom he still loves.
Mr Kolletti’s uncle Arthur Kolleti told the Telegraph that Caddick chased her future ‘toyboy’ husband around after they met on a Mediterranean cruise, where he worked as a hairdresser, a decade ago.
‘She wanted Anthony badly. She’s a few years older, she chased him around; he’s a house husband, he writes music, she wanted a young toyboy and got him,’ he said.
Despite him flying to Britain and her flying to Sydney, Caddick jumped on a plane to the UK to bring him back to live with her and her teenage son.
Arthur said his nephew wouldn’t have known how she ran her business.
Ms Caddick (centre) and her husband Anthony Koletti (right) would regularly jet off to Aspen, Colorado, where they stayed in a five-star residence at luxury resort, The Little Nell
Caddick has not tried to touch her now-frozen bank accounts since she disappeared, or contacted family.
One couple told the Telegraph they asked the alleged fraudster to give them her financial credentials and she gave them a doctored resume and handbook detailing the services she provided.
They said she ‘looked us in the eye’ and invited them to dinner, while ‘she was robbing us’.
Anthony Kolletti’s brother Chris also claimed his sister-in-law likely meticulously staged her disappearance and didn’t tell her husband because he was ‘too dumb’ and ‘can’t keep a secret’.
He also said she would probably return to face the music when she ‘runs out of money’.
Ms Caddick, 49, used to live an extravagant lifestyle with her husband (on right, she is wearing a Stefano Canturi necklace she claims was valued at $250,000)
‘She’ll come back, she can’t run forever, she’ll come back when she’s run out of money, or when she wants to see her son,’ he told Daily Telegraph on Wednesday.
Mr Koletti speculated Ms Caddick was ‘always’ going to run away, despite admitting he only met her once in the eight years she dated his DJ brother, whom he claimed turned his back on his family once seduced by the mother-of-one.
‘She doesn’t want anything to do with us, Anthony made the choice to go into that life, he doesn’t want to deal with us, that’s fine, he stopped talking to us… she’s stuck up, she had a life she wanted to lead… good luck to them,’ he said.
Daily Mail Australia revealed police are working under the assumption Ms Caddick is ‘very much alive’ and could have fled to Queensland after leaving her Dover Heights clifftop home 70 days ago.
Anthony Koletti (left) met Ms Caddick while working as a hairdresser at Joh Bailey’s Bondi Junction. The businesswoman vanished from her Dover Heights home two days after ASIC raided it
Melissa Caddick vanished from her Dover Heights home on or about November 12 last year and hasn’t been seen since
At that time, the Queensland border was closed to residents of the greater Sydney region.
But the state’s borders opened to Sydney on December 1 and remained that way for a few weeks before the Covid outbreak in the city’s northern beaches.
The Queensland theory came to light as NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller all but confirmed that investigators believe Ms Caddick is alive.
‘We are treating the case as she is still alive,’ the commissioner confirmed to Radio 2GB’s Ben Fordham breakfast program on Tuesday.
Mr Fuller said police are still searching for CCTV footage, doorknocking Dover Heights residents and ‘downloading information from her cars (and) computers’.
The day before corporate watchdog ASIC and AFP searched her home looking for clues as to how she managed her company, Maliver Pty Ltd, and dealt with investor money.
Ms Caddick’s baffling disappearance is just weeks away from crossing a critical threshold in the world of police missing person’s investigations (pictured with Anthony)
Ms Caddick’s baffling disappearance is just weeks away from crossing a critical threshold in the world of police missing person’s investigations.
The Federal Court heard that Ms Caddick’s disappearance left Mr Koletti broke, with just $1.95 left in transaction account as of early December.
That admission spurred the court to sign off on an interim increase to his weekly allowance from Ms Caddick’s assets to $1,700 per week.
A source with knowledge of Mr Koletti’s movements believes he hasn’t lived at his family’s Wallangra Rd mansion for weeks.
Instead, he is understood to have shacked up with Ms Caddick’s parents at their flat in nearby Edgecliff, which Ms Caddick also owns.
At a press conference in December, Mr Kolletti told Caddick: ‘Just come home. Everything’s taken care of. You’re not in trouble.’