WEBVTT - Judgment Day | 1 0:00:02.040 --> 0:00:06.960 We have gathered today to give thanks to God for 0:00:07.040 --> 0:00:10.640 the life of Alan Miles Metcalf, and to a third 0:00:11.039 --> 0:00:14.440 a Christian conviction that while death is the end of 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:18.000 human life, at marks a new beginning in our relationship 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:22.560 with God. Please let us stand together as we see 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:24.160 amazing grace. 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:41.440 I'm starting this story at the end, the end of 0:00:41.479 --> 0:00:46.480 Alan Metcalf's life. This is his funeral. It's a Wednesday, 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:50.520 the first day of March in twenty seventeen. I'm looking 0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:53.920 back at this scene immortalized on a YouTube video. It's 0:00:53.920 --> 0:00:56.720 a video that I've now watched multiple times, and each 0:00:56.760 --> 0:01:00.800 time I notice other small details. Count forty or so 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:04.200 people sitting in the pews of the church. The thirty 0:01:04.240 --> 0:01:07.520 two degree day is hot, sweltering, and a few of 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:10.919 the men have actually taken off their suit jackets. Sad 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:15.200 faces stare up as the reverend begins his service. It's 0:01:15.280 --> 0:01:19.520 just past one pm in a Uniting church in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. 0:01:20.400 --> 0:01:23.520 Alan's widow, Mary Metcalf, takes to the stand to deliver 0:01:23.560 --> 0:01:27.400 her eulogy. She cuts a striking figure with her larger 0:01:27.400 --> 0:01:30.160 than life makeup and heavy jewelry, as well as a 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:35.120 long black lace veil draped dramatically over her face. Her son, Clayton, 0:01:35.240 --> 0:01:39.760 towers next to her. Alan's only child, Mary describes her 0:01:39.840 --> 0:01:41.480 husband as a gift from God. 0:01:41.920 --> 0:01:44.400 I prayed to God when I was fifteen to send 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:48.080 me a husband who would be a kindred spirit, a 0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:53.200 visionary who would not be afraid. God answered my prayers 0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:56.800 in abundance to send me Alan Metcalts. 0:01:58.360 --> 0:02:02.240 Alan was seventy years old and extremely overweight. In the end, 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:07.600 he died of a heart attack. He was a seemingly 0:02:07.640 --> 0:02:11.240 successful businessman on the Gold Coast, a beachside city built 0:02:11.240 --> 0:02:15.440 around shining skyscrapers. And watching the funeral, it seems like 0:02:15.520 --> 0:02:18.360 Alan was pretty popular. More than ten people speak and 0:02:18.440 --> 0:02:20.880 others send video messages from all around the world. 0:02:21.680 --> 0:02:25.520 My mother told me years ago, Peter, you'll count your 0:02:25.680 --> 0:02:31.960 genuine friends on one hand. In your lifetime, Alan, you're 0:02:32.000 --> 0:02:33.200 on my hand. 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:36.200 We're not going to mourn him. 0:02:36.639 --> 0:02:39.160 We're going to celebrate his life, what he did in 0:02:39.200 --> 0:02:41.280 the world, what they're still going to do in the 0:02:41.320 --> 0:02:43.240 world because of Alan Metca. 0:02:44.040 --> 0:02:49.000 I truly believe he was a genius, and I trust 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:50.959 the history of books will prove out. 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:51.480 To be the case. 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:56.200 Only that's not quite the story I find when I 0:02:56.240 --> 0:02:59.040 pick up those history books seven years later and learn 0:02:59.080 --> 0:03:02.720 about Alan Metcalf for myself. The words I'm hearing now 0:03:02.720 --> 0:03:05.560 to describe him are very very different. 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:07.800 Deceitful, a conment. 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:10.960 He was a scammer and a lunatic in a way. 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:12.960 He struck me as being the kind of guy could 0:03:12.960 --> 0:03:15.960 sell ice to the Esquimos, but you just wondered what 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:17.040 was the ice made of? 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:22.520 Depending on who you asked, Alan was a visionary or 0:03:22.560 --> 0:03:25.320 a thief, a genius, or a fool who believed his 0:03:25.360 --> 0:03:29.480 own fantasies. Now six hundred people are wondering which it was, 0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:33.120 after putting their money, in some cases their life savings 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:37.200 into a scheme that Alan was running. Alan claimed he'd 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:41.600 found the secret to artificial intelligence in the Bible. He 0:03:41.680 --> 0:03:44.360 told the world his company would be bigger than Google. 0:03:44.960 --> 0:03:48.000 He was a messiah to his devout followers, able to 0:03:48.120 --> 0:03:50.720 lead them to a promised land free from ever having 0:03:50.760 --> 0:03:54.840 to work again, and guaranteed them with almost religious conviction, 0:03:55.560 --> 0:03:58.040 truly biblical returns. 0:03:59.040 --> 0:04:03.680 Welcome to see World's TV. Just like magic, I'm going 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:06.160 to show you the easiest way to make money online. 0:04:06.840 --> 0:04:10.200 So what is safe World's TV. It's more than just 0:04:10.240 --> 0:04:14.080 a website and more than just a software application. It's 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:21.240 the world's first Internet television and e business platform. 0:04:21.360 --> 0:04:26.400 Alan's investors were ordinary people, entire families, friend groups, pensioners, 0:04:26.680 --> 0:04:29.880 people from all over the world. They believed in Alan. 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:32.680 They believed they were going to get their money to 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:35.919 pay for their retirements, or their kids' educations, or the 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:41.600 holiday of lifetime. Until suddenly Alan died. Those investors were 0:04:41.680 --> 0:04:45.960 left asking what happened to their money, all forty nine 0:04:46.040 --> 0:04:50.320 million dollars of it. I'll never meet him. He died 0:04:50.360 --> 0:04:53.560 before I was even a working journalist, but he's consumed 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:56.799 my every spare thought. For the past year. The money 0:04:56.800 --> 0:04:59.200 has gone missing. No one seems to know where it is, 0:04:59.240 --> 0:05:02.799 and I'm setting up to find it. I'm Alex Turner Cohen, 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:05.680 a finance and investigative reporter from news dot Commeddy you 0:05:06.160 --> 0:05:27.960 and you're listening to the Missing forty nine million. This 0:05:28.040 --> 0:05:29.840 is episode one Judgment Day. 0:05:32.680 --> 0:05:36.120 Hello. I'm Alan Metcalf. In nineteen ninety nine, I was 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:40.520 fortunate enough to make the breakthrough discovery of the law 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:44.799 of thought that in the IT world is called universal logic. 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:49.560 Much to the surprise and disbelief of many people. I 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:53.320 found the law of thought in the Bible. We have 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:57.080 used the law of thought to develop what we believe 0:05:57.839 --> 0:06:04.120 is the world's first artificially intelligent, mass distributable Internet robot 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:07.839 for television and electronic business. 0:06:08.400 --> 0:06:11.760 The voice you're hearing there is Alan Metcalf. He might 0:06:11.839 --> 0:06:15.200 be dead, but Alan lives on in numerous YouTube clips, 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:18.479 A ghost in the machine. Let's go back to the 0:06:18.480 --> 0:06:21.360 email which started me on the search for Allan's missing money. 0:06:22.120 --> 0:06:24.919 Hi, my name is Charlie Waynepin. I'm a resident of 0:06:24.920 --> 0:06:28.000 the Netherlands that I'm writing about a financial investment that 0:06:28.040 --> 0:06:31.360 I made in Australia back in December twenty thirteen. I 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:34.400 was informed that you're a journalist that writes sharp articles 0:06:34.400 --> 0:06:38.920 concerning financial issues, including fraud. Therefore, I hope that you're 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:41.240 the right person that I can refer to for this matter. 0:06:42.120 --> 0:06:45.760 This is Charlie reading from his email. He explained that 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:48.760 he'd invested tens of thousands of dollars into a scheme 0:06:48.800 --> 0:06:52.400 called Safe Worlds, as had many other Australians, and that 0:06:52.480 --> 0:06:54.320 the founder of the scheme was now dead. 0:06:55.080 --> 0:06:56.760 Please let me know if this is something that you 0:06:56.800 --> 0:06:59.159 would be willing to work on and if you can, 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:00.760 I will be very high happy to send you my 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:03.839 correspondence that I had for this project. Thank you in 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:06.839 advance for your consideration, looking forward hearing from you. 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:11.280 When did this come in April? Didn't it? 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:14.240 It's been almost a year to the day. Actually, I 0:07:14.280 --> 0:07:18.280 never would have imagined from that one email. This is 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:21.840 me talking to my boss, Sarah Sharples, the finance editor 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:24.720 at news dot com TODAU. She's the one that actually 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:28.320 first received that email from Charlie. Tell us about what 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:31.960 was happening that day When the email came in. What 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:32.600 did you think? 0:07:33.080 --> 0:07:33.280 You know? 0:07:33.320 --> 0:07:35.280 It was a tip off? You receive a lot of 0:07:35.280 --> 0:07:38.080 tip offs. Was there anything about this one that stood out? 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:40.840 What do you remember now given how much ended up 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:42.160 coming out of this one email. 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:45.840 Yeah, we do get a lot of tip offs, which 0:07:45.880 --> 0:07:48.640 is where some of the best stories come from. I 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:53.040 remember receiving this email and he said he'd invested in 0:07:53.120 --> 0:07:57.320 this company back in twenty thirteen, and he'd invested fifty 0:07:57.360 --> 0:08:00.880 two thousand, which is a lot of money. And it 0:08:00.920 --> 0:08:03.800 got really intriguing as well because the email talked about 0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:06.560 what he'd been sold to invest in was a company 0:08:06.600 --> 0:08:10.920 that was going to surpass Google and YouTube, so obviously 0:08:11.640 --> 0:08:15.440 they're big players now. And then ten years later he 0:08:15.480 --> 0:08:18.440 still hadn't seen any of his money or any return 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:21.880 on it. He'd been chasing it for ten years. The 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:24.680 founder had died, but the wife had taken over it, 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:27.840 which was a bit weird because, like he said, they 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:29.880 had no idea what her experience was. 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:32.320 And then what what did you do next? 0:08:32.640 --> 0:08:35.960 I have to admit I read it and I filed 0:08:36.000 --> 0:08:38.400 it away as something we needed to follow up, and 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:42.920 then we get so busy I forgot about it. And 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:46.040 he actually emailed me again and asked me if I 0:08:46.120 --> 0:08:49.160 was interested and if not, should he take it elsewhere? 0:08:49.280 --> 0:08:51.200 And I think that was a good tactic from him, 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:55.400 because I was like, oh, no, we're interested. And at 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:57.800 the time I was going on some extended leave, so 0:08:57.840 --> 0:09:00.920 I passed it on to you, like, oh, yeah, this 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:03.520 could be interesting, I'll pick it up. You were very 0:09:03.559 --> 0:09:04.640 casual about it. 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:09.520 I reached out to Charlie to find out more. Charlie's 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:12.640 been coming to Australia for work trips since the nineteen eighties. 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:15.880 He's made strong friendships on these visits, and it was 0:09:15.920 --> 0:09:18.800 on one of these trips in twenty thirteen, when his 0:09:18.880 --> 0:09:21.719 Ozzie friend David Gorman told him about Safe World and 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:22.560 Alan Metcalf. 0:09:23.520 --> 0:09:26.880 David and his friends already had bod shares and they 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:29.720 talked me into buying some as well. So I had 0:09:29.760 --> 0:09:32.040 a look at it and it looked really interesting. That 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:34.680 looked like something futuristic. So I thought it was a 0:09:34.720 --> 0:09:39.400 good investment, and so, you know, we put a whole 0:09:39.440 --> 0:09:41.000 big part of our savings into it. 0:09:41.640 --> 0:09:44.280 Charlie wasn't so wealthy that this was spare money he 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:45.600 just had floating around. 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:49.440 No, that was life savings. We had just finalized everything 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:52.480 concerning the mortgage of our house and this was our 0:09:52.520 --> 0:09:55.120 life saving that we were going to keep for a 0:09:55.240 --> 0:09:56.359 direction retirement. 0:09:57.280 --> 0:09:59.920 Still, it seemed like an offer too good to pass up. 0:10:00.760 --> 0:10:03.320 They seemed like a really good investment, especially knowing that 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:06.920 they were intending to take it to the stock exchange. 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:09.640 So I thought it was a chance of a life. 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:14.880 David Gorman, the man who encouraged Charlie to invest, put 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:17.840 in twenty thousand dollars himself. I meet him at his 0:10:17.880 --> 0:10:20.199 home in Sydney's North where he lives with his wife, 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:21.920 kids and two pugs. 0:10:22.480 --> 0:10:24.839 So I bought some shares at five cents, some at 0:10:24.840 --> 0:10:28.160 ten cents, and some at a dollar, and he was 0:10:28.200 --> 0:10:31.760 talking about selling them at would have been about one 0:10:31.840 --> 0:10:35.800 hundred and fifty dollars a share, So that would have 0:10:35.840 --> 0:10:39.000 been yeah, quite a few men for myself. 0:10:40.080 --> 0:10:42.760 He still remembers meeting Alan Metcalf, who seemed to have 0:10:42.800 --> 0:10:45.640 an almost larger than life presence and a silver tongue. 0:10:46.080 --> 0:10:50.720 I first met him at the Manly Pacific Hotel, it 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:55.559 was called then down at Manly. He always dressed pretty well, actually, 0:10:55.640 --> 0:10:58.439 he always wore a suit and tie. He was medium height, 0:10:58.600 --> 0:11:03.680 I think Biggish man, quite large. I think he's probably 0:11:03.720 --> 0:11:06.160 had a few health issues. He was always out of breath, 0:11:06.520 --> 0:11:09.480 but very approachable, flake very gifted. 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:09.880 The gap. 0:11:10.600 --> 0:11:15.360 I think the way he was describing what safe worlds 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:18.640 can do, and this universal logic that he found in 0:11:18.679 --> 0:11:21.200 the Bible, you know, if it came off, it came off, 0:11:21.240 --> 0:11:26.440 but it sounded, I mean, it sounded, you know, intriguing. 0:11:28.240 --> 0:11:30.840 David works in the health industry and he's actually never 0:11:30.880 --> 0:11:34.280 invested in anything before. He's not the kind of person 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:37.880 to rush into big financial decisions, but there was something 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:39.640 different about this opportunity. 0:11:40.520 --> 0:11:43.079 Never was a risk taker. I'm not a risk taker, 0:11:43.160 --> 0:11:48.720 same as my father. Very conservative. But my friend Michael Blake, 0:11:49.800 --> 0:11:51.880 you know, the ex football he'd probably know him or 0:11:51.960 --> 0:11:55.160 heard of him, got me into this about two thousand 0:11:55.200 --> 0:11:55.600 and eight. 0:11:55.800 --> 0:11:57.120 Oh beautiful part. 0:11:57.559 --> 0:12:01.720 Why am I cave sending this troopers like screaming. 0:12:01.320 --> 0:12:02.280 Over the twenty two? 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:04.400 He's beat right, big work bag. 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:07.120 I couldn't comes at him. He's back and found his brother. 0:12:07.480 --> 0:12:10.160 That's Blake back the back Michael Blake. 0:12:10.200 --> 0:12:11.719 Oh god, it's. 0:12:11.400 --> 0:12:12.680 Tapa, his younger brother. 0:12:12.760 --> 0:12:14.959 I have done so well up on my cave, Pap. 0:12:15.800 --> 0:12:17.320 That is champlaining football. 0:12:18.320 --> 0:12:20.760 I speak to Michael Blake at his apartment in the 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:24.000 Northern Beaches of Sydney. A Holy Bible sits on the 0:12:24.040 --> 0:12:28.440 table between us. Michael played professional football throughout the seventies 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:31.240 and eighties along with his brother Phil. He's not the 0:12:31.280 --> 0:12:33.160 most technologically savvy guy. 0:12:34.040 --> 0:12:35.040 I might also just. 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:38.160 Get you to chuck your phone on, are you yeah? 0:12:38.200 --> 0:12:39.719 Would you be able to put on the aeroplane mode? 0:12:39.800 --> 0:12:40.520 Or too much? 0:12:40.600 --> 0:12:46.840 Just because apparently when Michael was there at the funeral, 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:49.640 he was actually one of the eight people that carried 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:51.080 Alan's coffin to the grave. 0:12:51.840 --> 0:12:54.079 I was a little bit disappointed in the funeral because 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:58.320 the people that talk are basically all talking about Safe 0:12:58.320 --> 0:13:01.960 World and that business that he worked on. But he 0:13:02.160 --> 0:13:05.120 was more than that. You know, that was only a 0:13:05.160 --> 0:13:07.960 part of his life at that time. But as I said, 0:13:08.000 --> 0:13:10.000 he was a bit of Alaric and he was a 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:10.440 good blake. 0:13:10.480 --> 0:13:13.200 He loved his sport. He's foot him and what have you, 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:13.480 and that. 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:16.520 In fact, it was sport that drew Alan and Michael together. 0:13:17.000 --> 0:13:20.600 I was heavily involved in rugby league. I cracked first 0:13:20.640 --> 0:13:23.839 grade the first time. I meant Allan was down at 0:13:23.920 --> 0:13:27.960 Darling Harbor because one time that I invested, he was 0:13:28.040 --> 0:13:32.160 over in Irvine, California at the time, and he even 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:33.959 I think he phoned me up and he wanted to 0:13:34.000 --> 0:13:36.360 know it was Michael from Michael and Phil Blake from Manley, 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:37.480 and he said yes. It was. 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:40.439 After that first meeting, they stayed in touch. 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:43.679 Over many years. I became friends with Alan. 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:46.880 Yes, So would you consider him a close friend or 0:13:47.160 --> 0:13:49.439 what kind of level of friendship would you say there 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:49.840 was there? 0:13:50.400 --> 0:13:52.400 Well, we've probably ended up as class friends. So I 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:55.000 spent a lot of time with him over the years, 0:13:55.679 --> 0:13:58.400 and he had a good sense of humor. You know, 0:13:58.440 --> 0:14:01.080 he could be a little bit cheeky, and you know 0:14:01.720 --> 0:14:02.920 he was pretty good company. 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:07.600 Michael had made decent money in his sporting career, and 0:14:07.920 --> 0:14:10.880 outside of putting some into his family business, he hadn't 0:14:10.880 --> 0:14:11.960 really invested before. 0:14:12.600 --> 0:14:14.280 I didn't really know what he was talking about, but 0:14:14.320 --> 0:14:16.200 I knew I wanted to get in. He said it 0:14:16.240 --> 0:14:18.199 was going to be bigger than Google, and that was 0:14:18.240 --> 0:14:21.960 pretty big, so I thought I wouldn't mind a bit 0:14:21.960 --> 0:14:25.640 of action with this. So my national investment was only 0:14:25.680 --> 0:14:30.320 around five thousand dollars. But over the years, many years, 0:14:30.360 --> 0:14:34.400 over a decade, we reinvested, reinvested, got the opportunity to 0:14:34.400 --> 0:14:39.600 reinvest it, and because the program seemed to be building, 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:43.240 gathering momentum, nearly ready to take off, we kept on 0:14:43.320 --> 0:14:48.240 putting more money in me and my family because we 0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:51.160 wanted to help everyone that we knew, all our kids, 0:14:51.720 --> 0:14:53.680 all our aunties and everyone like that. 0:14:53.880 --> 0:14:57.600 And we just thought, you know, how is this and. 0:14:57.520 --> 0:15:00.200 How much was it in total? Because I think who 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:02.840 said five thousand at the beginning? What was the total 0:15:02.880 --> 0:15:05.320 final number? Like currently as it stands. 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:08.720 Well, as we gradually build up. Even at one stage 0:15:08.720 --> 0:15:12.480 there me and my two brothers. We got our souper 0:15:12.520 --> 0:15:14.560 and made it a self managed fund and put that in. 0:15:15.240 --> 0:15:21.040 So all up, over many years we probably put around 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:22.120 three hundred thousand in. 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:23.040 That's the family. 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:27.560 With Dad and my brothers, I actually probably raised over 0:15:27.600 --> 0:15:31.720 a million dollars. The way people would get involved through 0:15:31.800 --> 0:15:33.800 me is if I'm going to a football reunion or 0:15:33.840 --> 0:15:36.960 catching up with people's school unions. You know, they's say, Blakie, 0:15:36.960 --> 0:15:38.520 what are he up to? And I speak to him 0:15:38.520 --> 0:15:42.440 about what I'm up to, and I'd mention Safe World, 0:15:42.640 --> 0:15:44.360 how's supposed to be bigger than Google? It could be 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:46.720 worth having a look at and leave it at that, 0:15:46.880 --> 0:15:48.560 And then they'd get back in contact with me, and 0:15:48.600 --> 0:15:50.280 I said, well, don't speak to me, I know nothing 0:15:50.320 --> 0:15:52.360 about it. Speak to Alan. And they'd speak to Alan, 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:54.880 get in contact with him, and they'd invest. You know, 0:15:55.120 --> 0:15:57.720 they'd invest like five or ten grand or twenty grand. 0:15:57.960 --> 0:16:02.040 One guy put in one hundred grand. But I suppose 0:16:02.200 --> 0:16:04.800 they put it their money in because they trusted me. 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:08.480 But I always got them to speak to Alan. 0:16:09.920 --> 0:16:12.120 Years later, a lot of his friends are not so 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:13.000 happy about this. 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:15.800 When they find out how much that I've lost in it. 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:17.000 It makes them feel better. 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:21.160 Listening to Michael, I start to realize how much of 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:24.680 this comes down to belief. Michael believed in Alan, and 0:16:24.760 --> 0:16:28.400 he believed in Alan's vision, and in turn, his friends 0:16:28.440 --> 0:16:29.120 believed him. 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:30.520 I've kind of. 0:16:32.240 --> 0:16:35.760 A bit taken aback because a lot of people invested 0:16:35.800 --> 0:16:38.040 in even though it was five or ten or twenty 0:16:38.080 --> 0:16:43.000 grand or whatever. People invested because they trusted me, and 0:16:43.360 --> 0:16:44.840 I feel as it was a little bit used. 0:16:44.840 --> 0:17:05.960 Probably while Michael Blake trusted Alan blindly, not everyone did. 0:17:06.200 --> 0:17:07.639 Seen one, two three? 0:17:08.040 --> 0:17:10.000 How much is that doggie in the window room with 0:17:10.040 --> 0:17:14.400 a waggedy tail? Nice? My name is David Richardson. I'm 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:18.959 a senior producer with Under Investigation with Lis Hayes, and 0:17:19.080 --> 0:17:23.520 I operate from Channel nine's Sydney office in North Sydney. 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:28.240 David Richardson is an investigative journalist who's been in the 0:17:28.280 --> 0:17:32.080 industry for more than thirty years. He's also Michael Blake's 0:17:32.080 --> 0:17:34.800 best mate, and when his friends started to talk about 0:17:34.880 --> 0:17:37.800 safe worlds, alarm bells rang For David. 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:42.520 My spider senses were tingling something bad. Alan had impressed 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:47.159 him with this concept of safe worlds, and Michael and 0:17:47.440 --> 0:17:51.480 another one of our friends were interested in having a 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:55.200 deeper look at what Alan was trying to sell, and 0:17:55.280 --> 0:17:57.800 they set up a meeting in town, and Michael asked 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:01.359 if I would come in and just act a third eye, 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:04.400 you know, just cast an ear over what was being 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:08.520 proposed and whether there was any danger involved, obviously with 0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:13.320 my experience chasing down scammers and bad guys. So there 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:16.600 was a meeting in town and we all sort of 0:18:16.640 --> 0:18:18.600 went in and met with Alan, who had rented an 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:23.840 office in the city, and my first impression of him 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:27.440 was that he was a hand grenade waiting to go off, 0:18:27.480 --> 0:18:30.399 and he just didn't look healthy. He was massively overweight, 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:34.359 he was ruddy complexion, you know, he just didn't look 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:39.399 terribly healthy. But he could talk. He could really, really talk. 0:18:39.480 --> 0:18:42.600 He was amazing. So he sat down and he started 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:47.600 to explain this Safe World's concept, which to me initially 0:18:47.800 --> 0:18:52.440 seemed to be this combination of almost an alternate internet 0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:58.840 marketing bizarre similar to Amazon or ali Baba or eBay, 0:18:58.960 --> 0:19:02.720 but at the same time it had an e commerce perspective. 0:19:03.280 --> 0:19:06.600 But then the big selling point that he was trying 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:09.960 to get across to us outside of that was the 0:19:10.440 --> 0:19:15.840 creation of universal logic, and he said he had discovered 0:19:16.400 --> 0:19:19.960 universal logic and the key to being able to allow 0:19:20.080 --> 0:19:24.359 all computers to talk together. So for people who don't understand, 0:19:24.400 --> 0:19:25.920 I'll try to put it as simply as I can, 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:27.959 because I had to go and get people to explain 0:19:28.000 --> 0:19:30.679 it to me. Is that individual companies have their own 0:19:30.720 --> 0:19:35.120 proprietary rights. So you've got Apple or DRL or HP 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:38.359 or them and all of their programmers right for them. 0:19:38.560 --> 0:19:42.240 So that's why Microsoft often doesn't sink with Apple, and 0:19:42.280 --> 0:19:47.560 Apple programs won't sync with Microsoft programs. The whole concept 0:19:47.560 --> 0:19:51.280 of universal logic was that regardless of who the programmer 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:55.520 was or who the manufacturer was, the computers worldwide would 0:19:55.520 --> 0:19:59.320 be able to talk to each other seamlessly, and that 0:19:59.440 --> 0:20:03.440 was going to be the language of safe Woods effectively. 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:08.480 David was skeptical, especially when he learned that this key 0:20:08.560 --> 0:20:12.720 revelation that underpinned the whole scheme Allan was selling had 0:20:12.720 --> 0:20:14.920 been made while reading the Bible. 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:19.720 And being an ancient history nut. I said to him instantly, 0:20:19.960 --> 0:20:24.800 or was that the ara mat Hebrew, Greek, Latin or English? 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:28.240 And he said English? And I just laughed. I said, Oh, 0:20:28.280 --> 0:20:30.040 you've got to be joking, you know. If he had 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:33.480 said it was in the Aramaic. I might have sort 0:20:33.520 --> 0:20:36.760 of believed part of it on the grounds that people 0:20:36.800 --> 0:20:40.040 and you know, theologians and historians have been finding code 0:20:40.119 --> 0:20:42.840 in the Original Bible for years, or what they deemed 0:20:42.880 --> 0:20:46.080 to be code. But what he was talking about was 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:49.359 just tosh. You know, there were some scholars who believe 0:20:49.480 --> 0:20:53.280 now that parts of the English Bible had code that 0:20:53.320 --> 0:20:57.639 had been implanted by Elizabeth the first spy master, Francis Bacon. So, 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:00.480 you know, for him to suggest that, after so many 0:21:00.520 --> 0:21:07.680 rewrites and translations, that somehow, miraculously this language or code 0:21:07.800 --> 0:21:11.080 or something had somehow materialized in the Bible, and only 0:21:11.160 --> 0:21:13.800 he had been able to find it, after the Bible 0:21:13.800 --> 0:21:17.000 has been poured over by you know, thousands and thousands 0:21:17.040 --> 0:21:20.280 of scholars and theologians. It was just too much for me, 0:21:20.320 --> 0:21:22.439 and I just couldn't. I couldn't swallow it. And I 0:21:22.480 --> 0:21:24.720 remember walking out of the meeting and the three of 0:21:24.800 --> 0:21:27.040 us went up to the Tattlesules Club to have a 0:21:27.080 --> 0:21:29.520 beer before we went home, and they said, what do 0:21:29.560 --> 0:21:32.840 you think? And I said, yeah, don't go near it now. 0:21:33.240 --> 0:21:36.159 I just don't buy it. To me, it just you know, 0:21:36.359 --> 0:21:40.359 I thought it was just rubbish, complete rubbish. 0:21:40.400 --> 0:21:43.760 And there were other things that David found unbelievable too. 0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:48.679 I went down to look at an office space that 0:21:48.720 --> 0:21:52.560 they were talking about buying, and it was the Manly 0:21:52.640 --> 0:21:55.920 Rugby Union building, you know, Manly over the road from 0:21:55.920 --> 0:21:59.640 the Manly Oval. I thought, my god, I mean this 0:22:00.080 --> 0:22:03.399 story building, it costs an absolute bomb. How are you 0:22:03.440 --> 0:22:06.040 going to pay for all of this? You know, they 0:22:06.040 --> 0:22:08.080 were wandering around as if you know, oh yeah, we'll 0:22:08.119 --> 0:22:11.240 put this here and this there and that there. And 0:22:11.600 --> 0:22:13.080 I thought, my god, how are you going to pay 0:22:13.080 --> 0:22:15.240 for all of this? And that was the problem, How 0:22:15.240 --> 0:22:16.680 were they going to pay for any of it? 0:22:17.840 --> 0:22:21.360 Alan did not successfully buy the building. The sale went 0:22:21.359 --> 0:22:23.960 to a tender process in twenty ten, and a well 0:22:24.000 --> 0:22:27.040 known property developer called John Nicholas snapped it up for 0:22:27.400 --> 0:22:32.000 presumably millions. He wouldn't say. David also tells me there 0:22:32.040 --> 0:22:34.360 was something else that made him doubt the whole thing. 0:22:35.000 --> 0:22:37.240 Why was Alan so interested in his friends? 0:22:38.240 --> 0:22:41.840 They were not looking for big companies, And I thought, 0:22:42.040 --> 0:22:43.879 what's going on? You know, they were looking for the 0:22:43.920 --> 0:22:47.160 low hanging fruit. What it means is that you've come 0:22:47.200 --> 0:22:51.080