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Melissa Caddick husband hits out as tough questions are asked about wife’s disappearance

Rebecca Franks and Frances VinallNCA NewsWire
Anthony Koletti was asked tough questions during his Channel 7 interview.
Camera IconAnthony Koletti was asked tough questions during his Channel 7 interview. Credit: Channel 7

Fraudster Melissa Caddick’s husband Anthony Koletti has appeared in a disturbing yet emotional TV interview about his beloved wife’s disappearance, strongly denying a reporter’s question as to whether he murdered her.

Mr Koletti spoke about the beautiful life he shared with his wife Melissa who he met while cutting her hair at a Sydney salon while she was still married to the father of her son, who he said now lives with him at the couple’s multimillion-dollar Sydney property.

The couple lived the high life at their exclusive $7 million cliff-side home on Wallangra Road in Dover Heights in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, and had yearly skiing trips to Aspen in Colorado.

Mr Koletti has never been named as a suspect in his wife’s disappearance.

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Mellissa Caddick and Anthony Koletti on their wedding day.
Camera IconMelissa Caddick and Anthony Koletti on their wedding day. Credit: Channel 7

Ms Caddick disappeared on Thursday, November 12, while going for a jog – leaving behind her phone and wallet – the day after she was interrogated by investigators from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) into an alleged $23 million fraud by her company.

Her decomposed foot washed up on a remote NSW south coast beach in February, three months after she disappeared.

The rest of her body was never found.

During the lengthy – and at times harrowing – interview on 7 News Spotlight’s The Vanishing, Mr Koletti spoke about the 14-hour raid conducted by ASIC’s raid that left his wife ”shell-shocked”.

Awkwardly - given the way her death was confirmed - he said: “ASIC took all the files, all the receipts, everything like that... so really I feel like she had no foot to stand on,” he said

“The way that they interrogated her was inhumane. She wasn’t given food. She wasn’t given water. which she desperately needed. I’ve never seen her in that state,” he said.

Mr Koletti accused ASIC of taking multiple pieces of his wife’s jewellery from a safe – each worth $500,000 – and her wedding dress in scenes he believed were intended to break her.

Anthony Koletti during his Channel 7 interview
Camera IconAnthony Koletti was asked tough questions during his Channel 7 interview. Credit: Channel 7

During the interview, Ms Caddick’s brother Adam Grimley alleged he had given Melissa $2 million to invest – money which has not been accounted for – along with many other friends and family members.

ASIC has claimed this cash was never invested and was used to fund Ms Caddick and Mr Koletti’s lifestyle, an accusation the husband denies.

During the interview, he staunchly defended his wife from all claims of fraud and his own knowledge of his wife’s alleged activities, describing her as the “love of my life” and even denied all understanding of what a “Ponzi scheme” was.

When asked what ASIC took during their raid, Mr Koletti replied, “Jewellery – necklaces. “There was a few that were $500k each.”

Melissa Caddick with her husband
Camera IconMelissa Caddick with her hairdresser husband Anthony Koletti. Credit: Channel 7

When asked what he spoke to Melissa about after the hours-long raid, Mr Koletti denied being angry or speaking words about it to his wife. Instead, he said she went to sleep while he created music on his computer until 4am, which was something he would regularly do.

An incredulous interviewer, 7 News Spotlight’s Michael Usher said, “Nothing happened in the house? There was no anger? No fight?”

“No,” was the response. “Everything was normal”

“What did you ask Melissa?” Usher said.

“I didn’t … couldn’t ask her a thing. she was shell-shocked. She went straight to sleep. I held her. I just felt that I had to console her. So we just cuddled and spooned as usual.”

When it was suggested, there are “a lot of stairs in that house” – did you push her? – the answer was an emphatic “no”.

While questions have been asked about Mr Koletti’s knowledge of his wife’s disappearance and the fact it took him 30 hours to report her disappearance to police, the Sydney hairdresser has denied covering up for her so she could escape and instead had many other theories.

Melissa Caddick's brother alleged she had defrauded $2 million from him.
Camera IconMelissa Caddick's brother Adam Grimley alleged she had defrauded $2 million from him and more from others. Credit: Channel 7

Mr Koletti said he believed she had been murdered and his “suspect list is long”.

The multimillion-dollar fraudster vanished two days after her home was raided by Australia’s corporate authority ASIC, as the scale of her astonishing Ponzi scheme began to emerge.

He told 7 NEWS Spotlight he has cried every day since her disappearance, which police believe was likely a suicide.

In a preview released ahead of The Vanishing, he told the program it would make sense to him that Ms Caddick was murdered.

“My suspect list is long,” he said.

“If it came out, if the police came to me and said ‘Melissa was murdered’, I’d be like ‘it makes sense’.

“I don’t believe that she committed suicide.

“Her love for her son, myself, her family, friends was far beyond that.

“I suppose I grieve every day, you know?

“I’ve come from never shedding a tear in my life, to shedding a tear every single day for a year.”

Melissa Caddick MD and Financial planner, at home in Paddington. pic by Andy Baker.
Camera IconMelissa Caddick has not been seen since November 12. Andy Baker. Credit: News Corp Australia
Anthony Koletti said it would “make sense” that his wife was murdered. 7 News Spotlight
Camera IconAnthony Koletti said it would “make sense” that his wife was murdered. 7 News Spotlight Credit: News Corp Australia

Ms Caddick swindled members of the public of almost $25 million, including from her closest friends and family.

She painted herself as a genius financial planner who would spin their savings into gold.

But instead of investing the money trusting victims gave her, she took the cash and spent it on herself and her luxury lifestyle.

It all came crashing down in the days before her mystery disappearance after ASIC launched an investigation.

Her husband and 15-year-old son were left behind when Ms Caddick went missing.

Mr Koletti told 7 News Spotlighthe “can’t keep silent any longer” about his belief she did not die by suicide.

“It’s time for the truth to come out,” he said.

“No one vanishes. I don’t think it’s an accident, at all.”

The preview of Sunday night’s Spotlight special shows journalist Michael Usher has not shied away from asking Mr Koletti tough questions – putting to the grieving husband: “Did you murder your wife?”

Anthony Koletti Anthony Koletti
Camera IconAnthony Koletti misses his wife Melissa Caddick and is still in love with her. Supplied via 7 News Credit: Channel 7

Police have never suspected Mr Koletti of any wrongdoing and there is no suggestion he had any knowledge of or involvement in Ms Caddick’s dodgy dealings.

Mr Koletti was the last person to see his Ms Caddick alive and has not spoken to media until now.

He maintains he was in the dark about the missing millions and his wife’s massive fraud.

Usher described the interview as “quite uncomfortable”.

“Believe it or not, he (Mr Koletti) is still desperately in love with Melissa,” he said.

“He misses her, extremely. He has lost his wife. Has he quite got his head around what is happening?

“Trying to understand Melissa Caddick’s personality is confusing.”

Originally published as Melissa Caddick husband hits out as tough questions are asked about wife’s disappearance

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