Receivers of Caddick’s estate have been busy doing what they could to recover some of the estimated $30 million she fleeced from clients of her dodgy investment schemes before her mysterious disappearance in 2020.
Melissa Caddick’s designer collection is up for auction.Sydney Morning Herald
But you won’t have to be in Caddick’s league for ill-gotten riches to get a piece of the action,with some banging bargains to be had when the gear goes under the hammer at Shapiro Auctioneers in Chippendale on Thursday.
Let’s see … there are dresses by Dior,Chanel,Gucci,Diane von Furstenberg,Herve Leger and other high-end labels that Shapiro’s reckon will go for between $200 and $400 or further upmarket.
You might snag an Oscar de la Renta number for less than $500 if the bidding isn’t too brisk.
Like handbags? They got Gucci,Louis Vuitton and an Italian-made Loro Piana beauty with an auctioneer’s estimate of $1500 to $2500. OK,that’s not cheap,but it certainly goes to show that when Caddick spent other people’s money,she did it with style.
Our favourites among the near-400 lots are the four pairs of sneakers by Chanel and Hermes – size 37 and 38,in case you were wondering – which may be going for less than $400 each.
Who says crime doesn’t pay?
Louise and David McBride.John Shakespeare
WILL FEELING
Former military lawyer David McBride,who is facing sentencing after last year pleading guilty to leaking information about war crimes investigations to journalists,is facing another more personal legal battle that involves his rather high-achieving family.
The whistleblower’s father is DrWilliam McBride,hailed by many as a hero for exposing the dangers of drug thalidomide,only to be later struck off as a doctor after falsifying research to discredit a different medication.
That episode drained the McBride family coffers substantially,such that when the doctor’s wife Patricia died in 2021 three years after her husband,the bulk of her estate consisted of an apartment in Neutral Bay.
That apartment,and much of the estate,went to David’s sisterLouise McBride,a tax barrister,socialite and art collector who once successfully sued international auction house Christie’s over a fake Albert Tucker painting.
McBride (the whistleblower) received some personal items and around $10,000. In 2022,he initiated proceedings in the NSW Supreme Court against Louise as executor of the will,seeking more money from his mother’s estate to help pay his legal bills.
That litigation won’t be ending any time soon if a recent judgment is anything to go by. Last year,McBride (the sister) filed a notice of motion claiming that her brother had made an offer to settle the case in a video he’d posted across his social media channels.
In the video,McBride is critical of his sister’s conduct,claiming she’d refused to help him financially with his (other) court case. “I don’t think you have to be Sigmund Freud to work out what’s driving her,” McBride said.
McBride (the sister),representing herself in court,argued that her brother’s reference to needing between $1000 and $10,000 from their mother’s estate constituted an offer to settle. That motion was rejected by acting Supreme Court judgeMichael Elkaim,who ruled that the words were merely a prediction of what the outcome of the civil case might be,rather than an offer to settle.
Elkaim’s brief judgment managed to squeeze in a reference to the artist formerly known as Kanye West,with his honour noting that McBride’s video differed from the rapper’s urging fans to subscribe to streaming platform Tidal,so they could listen to his 2016 albumThe Life of Pablo(his last good work).
And so,the proceedings continue.
BINANCIAL TIMES
The decision by NSW Liberal SenatorAndrew Bragg to take a sponsored trip to San Francisco in 2022 from cryptocurrency exchange Binance hasn’t aged well.
The jaunt,paid for by the Chinese-founded,Cayman Islands-based exchange,came in the same month that Bragg called for cryptocurrency trading to be brought in from the regulatory cold in Australia – which would be a big win for the sector’s players.
A few months later,corporate regulator ASIC cancelled Binance Australia’s derivatives licence – at the exchange’s own request – after a review of the outfit’s local operations.
Then last November,the US Department of Treasury reached a settlement with Binance worth US $4.368 million after it was established Binance had allowed criminals and terrorist groups,including Al-Qaeda,the Islamic State and Hamas,to use its platform to help finance their activities.
And now the families of victims of Hamas’ brutal October 7 massacre in Israel,and a woman freed from the terrorist group’s captivity after being abducted in the attack,have lodged legal action in the US against Binance,with the plaintiffs accusing the exchange of providing a funding mechanism for Hamas.
Binance has not responded publicly to the plaintiff’s allegations and did not respond on Monday to our request for comment.
But it’s all an awkward look for Bragg,who was on his feet in the Senate in October to underline his support for Israel in its retaliatory war in Gaza,condemn Hamas as a murderous terrorist group and calling for stronger action against those involved inthatpro-Palestinian protest at the Sydney Opera House that month.
Bragg told CBD he wasn’t aware of the latest development in Binance’s unfortunate recent history,adding that his interest was in crypto itself and the prospect of regulation,rather than the individual companies involved.