It was the clifftop bench where he sat with his wife during dog walks, a 20-minute stroll from the couple’s luxury home in Sydney’s Dover Heights.
Today, Anthony Koletti sits on that North Bondi bench alone, reflecting on the last four years since his wife, Melissa Caddick, disappeared in one of Australia’s most shocking cases of fraud.
CLIFF MYSTERY
“It still hurts,” he tells Woman’s Day in an exclusive interview. “It’s been a difficult road.”
November 12 marks the anniversary of Melissa’s vanishing. Posing as a financial adviser, the 49-year-old ran a nationwide Ponzi scheme that fleeced at least $23 million from her clients, including family and friends, to fund a lavish lifestyle.
She disappeared the day after the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) raided her home, acting on a tip-off.
Three months later, remains of her foot were found washed up on a beach on the NSW South Coast, leading to speculation she took her own life from cliffs near her home.
In an inquest last year, Coroner Elizabeth Ryan ruled that Melissa was dead but could not determine the cause based on the evidence.
“I’ll never get over the way I lost Melissa,” says Anthony, who accepts that his wife was running a fraudulent scheme, but is critical of the way ASIC treated her. “ASIC should be ashamed of themselves,” he says.
In fact, in his coronial submission, Anthony says he offered suggestions to the coroner to “prevent such a tragedy ever occurring again”, but says, “I was ignored and belittled.”
Following Melissa’s disappearance, he suffered intense scrutiny from authorities, including from Coroner Ryan, who called his testimony “not reliable” and found he had “withheld information”.
But the 42-year-old denies this, and says that he, too, is a victim, and continues to feel the heartache of all the lies and loss. There was no evidence that Anthony knew anything of his wife’s scheme.
“You don’t know what you don’t know,” he says. “It’s as simple as that.”
Left with little to his name after Melissa’s death, Anthony, a hairdresser by trade, returned to working full-time, and now runs a salon in Sydney’s East, where he has glowing five-star reviews.
STARTING OVER
“I had to start my life again at 40,” says the part-time DJ and amateur music producer. “But I’m doing OK.”
Anthony is also the main carer and provider for Melissa’s son from her first marriage. The 18-year-old lives exclusively with him in an apartment in Vaucluse, in Sydney’s east, and is studying at university.
The boy, who Anthony wants to remain anonymous, was just 14 when he heard his mother leave home at 5.30am on the day she vanished.
“He’s doing well,” says Anthony. “It’s been hard on us.”
Melissa’s 55 victims shared a $4.25 million compensation payout in August, following the sale of her assets, which included the mortgaged $9.8 million Dover Heights home. With other compensation payments, it brings the amount recovered so far to about 32 cents in the dollar for each victim, according to reports.
But Anthony, who walked away with little following his seven-year marriage, says his loss can’t be measured in money.
“The emotional pain is a million times harder than anything else I lost,” he says. “I’m still not over it.”
