Australia's corporate watchdog is planning to drop more than three dozen charges against missing businesswoman and alleged fraudster Melissa Caddick.
Last week the Australian Security and Investments Commission (ASIC) also withdrew a warrant for the 49-year-old's arrest, months after she vanished from her Sydney home and just weeks after her foot washed up on a south coast beach.
An ASIC spokesman told NCA NewsWire the watchdog expects to officially drop 38 charges which are listed for the Downing Centre Local Court today.
These include 19 counts of falsely claiming to have a financial services licence, 18 counts of dishonest conduct in relation to financial products and services, and one count of not holding an Australian financial services licence when required.
Caddick vanished from her Dover Heights home in Sydney's east in the early hours of November 12 just two days after the corporate watchdog and federal police raided the property.
The Sydney mother is accused of swindling millions of dollars out of victims, mostly family and friends, through her financial business Maliver Pty Ltd.
Police allege she then used the cash to fund her lavish lifestyle, which included luxury goods and expensive holidays.
Her son told police he heard the front door close about 5.30am the day she vanished.
Caddick and husband Anthony Koletti. Photo / Facebook
Several leading criminologists have raised the idea that the mother was murdered, and police have repeatedly said they cannot rule out foul play.
But they are leaning toward the more likely scenario that she took her own life.
Caddick's A$7m Dover Heights home is just a short walk to a cliff face. Detectives believe she could have entered the water there and her body may have travelled as far as the south coast.
When asked whether she jumped, NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller said in March, "that's a real difficult one".
"[But it's not often] body parts wash up so far south of Sydney and in such good condition given she went missing on or about November 11."
Her shoe and foot washed up on a remote beach months later.
No further remains have been found despite extensive searches, including combing more than 6000sq m in the ocean below the Dover Heights cliffs.
In February, the court was told liquidators found just A$5600 in the 49-year-old's bank accounts as the investigation continued.
Her father-in-law Rodo Koletti has been vocal since her disappearance, claiming his son – and Caddick's husband – Anthony is "delusional" about his wife and is convinced she was framed.
"He's going to come crashing down eventually when the reality hits about everything she's done," he told 60 Minutes.
