More than 50 investors who lost money through Melissa Caddick's fraudulent scheme have teamed up to fight for their stake in a multimillion-dollar home in Sydney's east.
On Wednesday, a representative investor known only as Investor A was allowed to join a Federal Court lawsuit to provide opposition to Caddick's parents Ted and Barbara Grimley over a property in Edgecliff.
The Grimleys claim they paid their now-deceased daughter almost $1.2 million as partial payment for the apartment's purchase on the condition they would live there rent-free until they died.
Vanessa Whittaker SC, a barrister representing receivers appointed over Caddick's property, told the Federal Court that 53 out of 55 investors had voted to equally share any funds from the sale of the Edgecliff property and to appoint a representative to head up their legal claim for the missing money.
This means the out-of-pocket investors will not fight between themselves over who is owed what from the sale of Caddick's property and the liquidation of her company Maliver.
Instead, they will be united against Mr and Mrs Grimley, opposing their bid to have funds from sale of a $10 million mansion in Dover Heights used to pay off the mortgage over the Edgecliff property as well as the couple's claim for priority interest in this apartment.
Other valuable items such as jewellery, designer clothing, artwork and accessories have already gone under the hammer in a bid to recoup funds for the victims.
On Wednesday, Justice Brigitte Markovic allowed Investor A to join the lawsuit saying it was in the interests of justice to have a party opposing the Grimleys' bid for the Edgecliff property.
Caddick's husband Anthony Koletti has also laid claim over some of his wife's property dealt with by the receivers and liquidators.
A hearing on April 28 will deal with the questions of whether an interim distribution can be made to investors and whether the Grimleys can use the Dover Heights funds for the Edgecliff mortgage.
A further hearing hoped to be held sometime in May will deal with whether Caddick's parents can remain living in Edgecliff or whether the apartment will be sold off and funds sent out to the fraudster's victims.
Caddick told her victims she would invest their cash, but instead created false CommSec trading accounts and faked trading documents showing profits.
She preyed mostly on her friends and family between 2013 and 2020, taking $23 million through the Ponzi scheme.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the Australian Federal Police jointly raided Caddick's eastern suburbs home on November 11, 2020.
Mr Koletti reported his 49-year-old wife missing two days later.
Three months after that, her decomposing severed foot washed up in a sports shoe on the far south coast of NSW.
