WEBVTT - INTRODUCING: The Missing 49 Million 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:03.840 Hi, I Catchkillers fans. I'm Alex Turner Cohen, our finance 0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:06.760 and investigative reporter for news dot com. Today you and 0:00:06.800 --> 0:00:09.600 I'm dropping in to share the first episode of my podcast, 0:00:09.720 --> 0:00:13.080 The Missing forty nine Million. It's the story of one 0:00:13.160 --> 0:00:16.360 Ossie Man, a secret code he claims to have found 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:19.560 hidden in the Bible, and hundreds of mum and dad 0:00:19.560 --> 0:00:22.280 investors who want to know where their money has gone. 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:25.560 If you enjoy this episode, search for a Missing forty 0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:28.760 nine million wherever you get your podcasts and come join 0:00:28.800 --> 0:00:30.520 me on this treasure hunt for the truth. 0:00:33.200 --> 0:00:38.120 We are gathered today to give thanks to God for 0:00:38.240 --> 0:00:41.880 the life of Alan Myles Metcalf and to a third 0:00:42.200 --> 0:00:45.640 the Christian conviction. But while death is the end of 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:49.199 human life, at marks a new beginning in our relationship 0:00:49.479 --> 0:00:53.760 with God. Please let us stand together as we see 0:00:54.280 --> 0:00:55.360 amazing grace. 0:01:09.720 --> 0:01:12.600 I'm starting this story at the end, the end of 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:17.640 Alan Metcalf's life. This is his funeral. It's a Wednesday, 0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:21.720 the first day of March in twenty seventeen. I'm looking 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:25.120 back at this scene immortalized on a YouTube video. It's 0:01:25.120 --> 0:01:27.920 a video that I've now watched multiple times, and each 0:01:27.959 --> 0:01:31.880 time I notice other small details. I count forty or 0:01:31.880 --> 0:01:35.000 so people sitting in the pews of the church. The 0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:38.600 thirty two degree day is hot, sweltering, and a few 0:01:38.640 --> 0:01:41.080 of the men have actually taken off their suit jackets. 0:01:41.800 --> 0:01:45.120 Sad faces stare up as the reverend begins his service. 0:01:46.160 --> 0:01:50.720 It's just past one pm in a Uniting church in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. 0:01:51.600 --> 0:01:54.680 Alan's widow, Mary Metcalf, takes to the stand to deliver 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:58.600 her eulogy. She cuts a striking figure with her larger 0:01:58.600 --> 0:02:01.320 than life makeup and heavy jewelry, as well as a 0:02:01.400 --> 0:02:06.320 long black lace veil draped dramatically over her face. Her son, Clayton, 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:10.960 towers next to her, Alan's only child. Mary describes her 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:12.680 husband as a gift from God. 0:02:13.120 --> 0:02:15.560 I prayed to God when I was fifteen to send 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:19.280 me a husband who would be a kindred spirit, a 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:23.920 visionary who would not be afraid. God answered my prayers 0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:29.799 in abundance to send me Alan metcats. 0:02:29.520 --> 0:02:33.000 Alan was seventy years old and was extremely overweight. In 0:02:33.040 --> 0:02:38.160 the end, he died of a heart attack. He was 0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:41.760 a seemingly successful businessman on the Gold Coast, a beachside 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:46.200 city built around shining skyscrapers and watching the funeral, it 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:49.079 seems like Alan was pretty popular. More than ten people 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:52.079 speak and others send video messages from all around the world. 0:02:52.840 --> 0:02:56.720 My mother told me years ago, Peter, you'll count your 0:02:56.880 --> 0:03:02.320 genuine friends on one hand in your life time Alan, 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:07.400 You're on my hand. We're not going to mourn him. 0:03:07.840 --> 0:03:10.360 We're going to celebrate his life, what he did in 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:12.480 the world, what they're still going to do in the 0:03:12.480 --> 0:03:14.800 world because of Alan metca. 0:03:15.200 --> 0:03:20.200 I truly believe he was a genius, and I trust 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:22.200 the history of books will prove out. 0:03:22.000 --> 0:03:22.680 To be the case. 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:27.400 Only that's not quite the story I find when I 0:03:27.440 --> 0:03:30.239 pick up those history books seven years later and learn 0:03:30.240 --> 0:03:33.880 about Alan Metcalf for myself. The words I'm hearing now 0:03:33.919 --> 0:03:36.760 to describe him are very very different. 0:03:37.480 --> 0:03:41.440 Deceitful, a commenter, he was a scammer and a lunatic 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:42.120 in a way. 0:03:42.280 --> 0:03:43.880 He struck me as being the kind of guy he 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:46.560 could sell ice to the Eskimos, but you just wondered 0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:48.200 what was the ice made of? 0:03:50.040 --> 0:03:53.720 Depending on who you asked, Alan was a visionary or 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:56.520 a thief, a genius or a fool who believed his 0:03:56.520 --> 0:04:00.320 own fantasies. Now six hundred people are wondering which it 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:03.720 was after putting their money, in some cases, their life 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:08.200 savings into a scheme that Allan was running. Alan claimed 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:11.840 he'd found the secret to artificial intelligence in the Bible. 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:15.520 He told the world his company would be bigger than Google. 0:04:16.160 --> 0:04:19.200 He was a messiah to his devout followers, able to 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:21.919 lead them to a promised land, free from ever having 0:04:21.920 --> 0:04:26.040 to work again, and guaranteed them with almost religious conviction, 0:04:26.720 --> 0:04:29.000 truly biblical returns. 0:04:30.200 --> 0:04:34.840 Welcome to Safe World's TV. Just like Magic, I'm going 0:04:34.920 --> 0:04:37.640 to show you the easiest way to make money online. 0:04:38.000 --> 0:04:41.360 So what is Safe World's TV. It's more than just 0:04:41.400 --> 0:04:45.279 a website and more than just a software application. It's 0:04:45.320 --> 0:04:52.440 the world's first Internet television and eBusiness platform. 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:57.560 Alan's investors were ordinary people, entire families, friend groups, pensioners, 0:04:57.880 --> 0:05:01.080 people from all over the world. They believed in Alan. 0:05:01.760 --> 0:05:03.880 They believed they were going to get their money to 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:07.120 pay for their retirements, or their kids' educations, or the 0:05:07.120 --> 0:05:12.800 holiday of lifetime. Until suddenly Alan died. Those investors were 0:05:12.839 --> 0:05:17.120 left asking what happened to their money, all forty nine 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:21.480 million dollars of it. I'll never meet him. He died 0:05:21.520 --> 0:05:24.720 before I was even a working journalist, but he's consumed 0:05:24.760 --> 0:05:27.960 my every spare thought for the past year. The money 0:05:28.000 --> 0:05:30.400 has gone missing. No one seems to know where it is, 0:05:30.440 --> 0:05:33.960 and I'm setting out to find it. I'm Alex Turner Cohen, 0:05:34.040 --> 0:05:36.840 a finance and investigative reporter from news dot Commeddy you, 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:59.120 and you're listening to the Missing forty nine million. This 0:05:59.200 --> 0:06:01.040 is episode one Judgment Day. 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:07.279 Hello, I'm Alan Metcalf. In nineteen ninety nine, I was 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:11.720 fortunate enough to make the breakthrough discovery of the law 0:06:11.760 --> 0:06:15.960 of thought that in the IT world is called universal logic. 0:06:17.200 --> 0:06:20.760 Much to the surprise and disbelief of many people, I 0:06:20.920 --> 0:06:24.479 found the law of thought in the Bible. We have 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:28.279 used the law of thought to develop what we believe 0:06:29.040 --> 0:06:35.240 is the world's first artificially intelligent, mass distributable Internet robot 0:06:35.640 --> 0:06:38.719 for television and electronic business. 0:06:39.560 --> 0:06:42.960 The voice you're hearing there is Alan Metcalf. He might 0:06:43.000 --> 0:06:46.400 be dead, but Alan lives on in numerous YouTube clips, 0:06:46.680 --> 0:06:49.640 a ghost in the machine. Let's go back to the 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:52.520 email which started me on the search for Allan's missing money. 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:56.080 Hi, my name is Charlie Waynekin. I'm a resident of 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:59.200 the Netherlands and I'm writing about a financial investment that 0:06:59.200 --> 0:07:02.600 I made in Australia back in December twenty thirteen. I 0:07:02.640 --> 0:07:05.560 was informed that you're a journalist that writes sharp articles 0:07:05.600 --> 0:07:10.120 concerning financial issues, including fraud. Therefore, I hope that you're 0:07:10.160 --> 0:07:12.360 the right person that I can refer to for this matter. 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:16.920 This is Charlie reading from his email. He explained that 0:07:17.000 --> 0:07:19.920 he'd invested tens of thousands of dollars into a scheme 0:07:19.960 --> 0:07:23.600 called Safe Worlds, as had many other Australians, and that 0:07:23.680 --> 0:07:25.520 the founder of the scheme was now dead. 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:27.960 Please let me know if this is something that you 0:07:27.960 --> 0:07:30.360 would be willing to work on, and if you can, 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:32.720 I will be very happy to send you my correspondence 0:07:32.720 --> 0:07:35.360 that I have for this project. Thank you in advance 0:07:35.400 --> 0:07:38.040 for your consideration, looking forward hearing from you. 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:42.480 When did this come in April? Didn't it? 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:45.440 It's been almost a year to the day. Actually, I 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:49.480 never would have imagined from that one email. This is 0:07:49.520 --> 0:07:53.000 me talking to my boss, Sarah Sharples, the finance editor 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:55.960 at News dot Com TODAU. She's the one that actually 0:07:55.960 --> 0:07:59.520 first received that email from Charlie. Tell us about what 0:08:00.160 --> 0:08:03.160 was happening that day. When the email came in What 0:08:03.200 --> 0:08:03.800 did you think? 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:04.480 You know? 0:08:04.480 --> 0:08:06.440 It was a tip off? You receive a lot of 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:09.240 tip offs. Was there anything about this one that stood out? 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:12.000 What do you remember now given how much ended up 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:14.320 coming out of this one email. 0:08:14.760 --> 0:08:17.040 Yeah, we do get a lot of tip offs, which 0:08:17.040 --> 0:08:19.800 is where some of the best stories come from. I 0:08:19.880 --> 0:08:24.200 remember receiving this email and he said he'd invested in 0:08:24.280 --> 0:08:28.520 this company back in twenty thirteen, and he'd invested fifty 0:08:28.520 --> 0:08:32.040 two thousand, which is a lot of money. And it 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:35.000 got really intriguing as well because the email talked about 0:08:35.080 --> 0:08:37.720 what he'd been sold to invest in was a company 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:42.080 that was going to surpass Google and YouTube, so obviously 0:08:42.800 --> 0:08:46.640 they're big players now. And then ten years later, he 0:08:46.679 --> 0:08:49.640 still hadn't seen any of his money or any return 0:08:49.679 --> 0:08:53.080 on it. He'd been chasing it for ten years. The 0:08:53.120 --> 0:08:55.840 founder had died, but the wife had taken over it, 0:08:55.920 --> 0:08:59.000 which was a bit weird because, like he said, they 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:01.120 had no idea what her experience was. 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:03.480 And then, what what did you do next? 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:07.160 I have to admit I read it and I filed 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:09.560 it away as something we needed to follow up, and 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:14.120 then we get so busy I forgot about it, and 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:17.200 he actually emailed me again and asked me if I 0:09:17.320 --> 0:09:20.319 was interested and if not, should he take it elsewhere? 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:22.400 And I think that was a good tactic from him, 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:26.560 because I was like, oh, no, we're interested. And at 0:09:26.600 --> 0:09:29.000 the time I was going on some extended leave, so 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:32.000 I passed it on to you. You were like, oh, yeah, 0:09:32.040 --> 0:09:34.320 this could be interesting. I'll pick it up. You were 0:09:34.440 --> 0:09:35.840 very casual about it. 0:09:37.600 --> 0:09:40.720 I reached out to Charlie to find out more. Charlie's 0:09:40.720 --> 0:09:43.800 been coming to Australia for work trips since the nineteen eighties. 0:09:44.559 --> 0:09:47.040 He's made strong friendships on these visits, and it was 0:09:47.080 --> 0:09:49.959 on one of these trips in twenty thirteen when his 0:09:50.040 --> 0:09:52.920 Ozzie friend David Gorman told him about Safe Worlds and 0:09:52.960 --> 0:09:54.559 Alan Metcalf. 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:58.079 David and his friends already had bod Shares and they 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:00.920 talked me into buying some as well. So I had 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:03.319 a look at it and it looked really interesting. It 0:10:03.360 --> 0:10:05.880 looked like something futuristic, so I thought it was a 0:10:05.920 --> 0:10:10.560 good investment, and so, you know, we put a whole 0:10:10.640 --> 0:10:12.200 big part of our savings into it. 0:10:12.840 --> 0:10:15.480 Charlie wasn't so wealthy that this was spare money he 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:16.800 just had floating around. 0:10:17.320 --> 0:10:20.600 No, that was life savings. We had just finalized everything 0:10:21.120 --> 0:10:23.679 concerning the mortgage of our house, and this was our 0:10:23.720 --> 0:10:26.359 life saving that we were going to keep for a 0:10:26.440 --> 0:10:27.559 direction retirement. 0:10:28.440 --> 0:10:31.160 Still, it seemed like an offer too good to pass up. 0:10:31.960 --> 0:10:34.520 They seemed like a really good investment, especially knowing that 0:10:34.600 --> 0:10:38.760 they were intending to take it to the stock exchange. 0:10:39.040 --> 0:10:40.840 So I thought it was a chance of a life. 0:10:42.400 --> 0:10:46.040 David Gorman, the man who encouraged Charlie to invest, put 0:10:46.080 --> 0:10:49.040 in twenty thousand dollars himself. I meet him at his 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:51.440 home in Sydney's North where he lives with his wife, 0:10:51.559 --> 0:10:53.120 kids and two pugs. 0:10:53.679 --> 0:10:56.800 So I bought some shares at five cents, at ten cents, 0:10:56.840 --> 0:10:59.920 and some at a dollar, and he was talking about 0:11:00.080 --> 0:11:04.240 selling them at would have been about one hundred and 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:08.480 fifty dollars a share, So that would have been yeah, 0:11:08.600 --> 0:11:09.240 quite a few. 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:10.160 Men for myself. 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:13.960 He still remembers meeting Alan Metcalf, who seemed to have 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:16.880 an almost larger than life presence and a silver tongue. 0:11:17.280 --> 0:11:21.920 I first met him at the Manly Pacific Hotel it 0:11:22.000 --> 0:11:26.760 was called then down at Manly. He always dressed pretty well, actually, 0:11:26.800 --> 0:11:29.680 he always wore a suit and tie. He was medium height. 0:11:29.760 --> 0:11:34.120 I think big ish man, quite large. I think he's 0:11:34.559 --> 0:11:36.920 probably had a few health issues. He was always out 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:41.079 of breath, but very approachable, like very gift of the gap. 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:46.560 I think the way he was describing what safe worlds 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:49.840 can do and this universal logic that he found in 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:52.520 the Bible, if it came off, it came off. But 0:11:52.559 --> 0:11:57.599 it sounded I mean it sounded, you know, intriguing. 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:02.000 David worked in the health industry and he's actually never 0:12:02.040 --> 0:12:05.440 invested in anything before. He's not the kind of person 0:12:05.480 --> 0:12:09.080 to rush into big financial decisions, but there was something 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:10.839 different about this opportunity. 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:14.240 Never was a risk taker. I'm not a risk taker, 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:19.920 same as my father. Very conservative. But my friend Michael Blake, 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:23.079 you know, the ex footballer. You probably know him or 0:12:23.160 --> 0:12:26.360 heard of him, got me into this about two thousand 0:12:26.400 --> 0:12:26.800 and eight. 0:12:26.960 --> 0:12:30.880 Oh beautiful part by my Caye sending this two percent 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:32.920 play sweaming. 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:33.480 Over to twenty two. 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:36.600 He's bit right to think where Beggerson comes at him, 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:37.560 he's part. 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:41.360 And found each other. That's Blake back the back, Michael Blake. 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:44.720 Oh's God at his younger brother had done so. 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:46.160 Well up on my cave path. 0:12:46.960 --> 0:12:48.520 That is champlaining football. 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:51.880 I speak to Michael Blake at his apartment in the 0:12:51.960 --> 0:12:55.160 Northern Beaches of Sydney. A Holy Bible sits on the 0:12:55.240 --> 0:12:59.600 table between us. Michael played professional football throughout the seventies 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:02.319 and eighties along with his brother Phil. He's not the 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:06.400 most technologically savvy guy. I might also just get you 0:13:06.480 --> 0:13:09.880 to chuck your phone on you would you be able 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:12.080 to put on aeroplane mode or too much? Just because 0:13:12.080 --> 0:13:18.959 apparently when Michael was there at the funeral, he was 0:13:19.000 --> 0:13:21.600 actually one of the eight people that carried Alan's coffin 0:13:21.679 --> 0:13:22.199 to the grave. 0:13:23.000 --> 0:13:25.240 I was a little bit disappointed in the funeral because 0:13:25.280 --> 0:13:29.439 the people that talked were basically all talking about Safe 0:13:29.520 --> 0:13:33.079 World and that business that he worked on. But he 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:36.280 was more than that. You know, that was only a 0:13:36.360 --> 0:13:39.080 part of his life at that time. But as I said, 0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:41.160 he was a bit of Alaric and he was a 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:43.959 good Blake. He loved the sport, He's foot and what 0:13:44.120 --> 0:13:44.599 have you, and that. 0:13:45.080 --> 0:13:47.640 In fact, it was sport that drew Alan and Michael together. 0:13:48.200 --> 0:13:51.760 I was heavily involved in rugby league. I cracked first 0:13:51.800 --> 0:13:54.960 grade the first time. I meant Allan was down at 0:13:55.080 --> 0:13:59.120 Darling Harbor because one time that I invested he was 0:13:59.200 --> 0:14:03.320 over in Irvine, California at the time, and he even 0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:05.120 I think he phoned me up and he wanted to 0:14:05.200 --> 0:14:07.160 know it was Michael from Michael and Phil Blake from 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:08.559 Manly and said, yes it was. 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:11.560 After that first meeting, they stayed in touch. 0:14:11.920 --> 0:14:14.880 Over many years. I became friends with Allan. 0:14:15.559 --> 0:14:17.880 Yeah, So would you consider him a close friend or 0:14:18.320 --> 0:14:20.560 what kind of level of friendship would you say there 0:14:20.680 --> 0:14:21.000 was there? 0:14:21.560 --> 0:14:23.560 Well, we've probably ended up as class friends. So I 0:14:23.640 --> 0:14:26.120 spent a lot of time with him over the years, 0:14:26.880 --> 0:14:29.560 and he had a good sense of humor. You know, 0:14:29.600 --> 0:14:32.200 he could be a little bit cheeky, and you know, 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:34.040 he was pretty good company. 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:38.640 Michael had made decent money in his sporting career, and 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:42.040 outside of putting some into his family business, he hadn't 0:14:42.040 --> 0:14:43.120 really invested before. 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:45.440 I didn't really know what he was talking about, but 0:14:45.520 --> 0:14:47.320 I knew I wanted to get in. He said it 0:14:47.400 --> 0:14:49.360 was going to be bigger than Google, and that was 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:53.120 pretty big, so I thought I wouldn't mind a bit 0:14:53.160 --> 0:14:56.800 of action with this. So my national investment was only 0:14:56.840 --> 0:15:01.480 around five thousand dollars, but over the years, is many years, 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:05.520 over a decade, we reinvested, reinvested, got the opportunity to 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:10.680 reinvest it, and because the programs seemed to be building, 0:15:10.960 --> 0:15:14.400 gathering momentum, nearly ready to take off, we kept on 0:15:14.520 --> 0:15:19.360 putting more money in me and my family because we 0:15:19.480 --> 0:15:22.320 wanted to help everyone that we knew, all our kids, 0:15:22.880 --> 0:15:24.800 all our aunties and everyone like that. 0:15:25.080 --> 0:15:28.360 And we just thought, you know, how is this and 0:15:28.720 --> 0:15:31.280 how much was it in total? Because I think you 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:34.000 said five thousand at the beginning? What was the total 0:15:34.040 --> 0:15:36.400 final number? Like currently as it stands. 0:15:36.760 --> 0:15:39.800 Well, as we gradually build up. Even at one stage 0:15:39.920 --> 0:15:43.680 there me and my two brothers we got our super 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:45.640 and made it a self managed fund and put that in. 0:15:46.440 --> 0:15:52.240 So all up, over many years we probably put around 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:55.200 three hundred thousand in. That's the family. With dad and 0:15:55.320 --> 0:15:59.600 my brothers, I actually probably raised over a million dollars. 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:03.520 The way people would get involved through me is if 0:16:03.560 --> 0:16:05.480 I'm going to a football reunion or catching up with 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:08.320 people's school unions. You know, that's a blakie what are 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:10.000 you up to? And I speak to him about what 0:16:10.080 --> 0:16:13.960 I'm up to, and I'd mention safe World, how I 0:16:13.960 --> 0:16:15.720 supposed to be bigger than Google. It could be worth 0:16:15.760 --> 0:16:18.080 having a look at and leave it at that, and 0:16:18.120 --> 0:16:20.120 then they'd get back in contact with me, and I said, well, 0:16:20.160 --> 0:16:22.120 don't speak to me, I know nothing about it. Speak 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:24.440 to Alan. And they'd speak to Alan, get in contact 0:16:24.440 --> 0:16:27.040 with him, and they'd invest, you know, they'd invests like 0:16:27.200 --> 0:16:29.760 five or ten grand or twenty grand. One guy put 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:33.880 in one hundred grand. But I suppose they put it 0:16:34.480 --> 0:16:38.560 their money in because they trusted me. But I always 0:16:38.560 --> 0:16:39.640 got them to speak to Alan. 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:43.280 Years later, a lot of his friends are not so 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:44.040 happy about this. 0:16:44.760 --> 0:16:46.840 When they find out how much that I've lost in it, 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:47.880 it makes them feel better. 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:52.320 Listening to Michael, I start to realize how much of 0:16:52.400 --> 0:16:55.800 this comes down to belief. Michael believed in Alan, and 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:59.560 he believed in Alan's vision, and in turn, his friends 0:16:59.600 --> 0:17:00.280 believed him. 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:06.080 I've kind of a bit taken aback because a lot 0:17:06.119 --> 0:17:08.720 of people invested in even that was five or ten 0:17:08.840 --> 0:17:12.879 or twenty grand or whatever. People invested because they trusted me. 0:17:14.040 --> 0:17:15.960 And I feel as it was a little bit yearsed. 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:37.080 Probably while Michael Blake trusted Alan blindly, not everyone did. 0:17:37.240 --> 0:17:38.440 I seen one, two three? 0:17:39.240 --> 0:17:41.159 How much is that doggie in the window? One with 0:17:41.240 --> 0:17:42.000 a waggedy tail? 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:42.879 Nice? 0:17:43.680 --> 0:17:47.240 My name is David Richardson. I'm a senior producer with 0:17:47.400 --> 0:17:52.080 Under Investigation with Lis Hayes and I operate from Channel 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:54.639 nine's Sydney office in North Sydney. 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:59.359 David Richardson is an investigative journalist who's been in the 0:17:59.440 --> 0:18:03.240 industry for more than thirty years. He's also Michael Blake's 0:18:03.280 --> 0:18:06.000 best mate, and when his friends started to talk about 0:18:06.040 --> 0:18:08.320 safe Worlds, alarm bells rang. 0:18:08.440 --> 0:18:12.920 For David, My spider senses were tingling something bad. Alan 0:18:13.040 --> 0:18:17.119 had impressed him with this concept of safe worlds, and 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:21.560 Michael and another one of our friends were interested in 0:18:22.280 --> 0:18:25.280 having a deeper look at what Alan was trying to sell, 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:28.639 and they set up a meeting in town, and Michael 0:18:28.720 --> 0:18:31.239 asked if I would come in and just act as 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:35.280 a third eye, just cast an ear over what was 0:18:35.400 --> 0:18:39.520 being proposed and whether there was any danger involved, obviously 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:44.080 with my experience chasing down scammers and bad guys. So 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:47.720 there was a meeting in town and we all sort 0:18:47.720 --> 0:18:49.600 of went in and met with Alan, who had rented 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:54.760 an office in the city. And my first impression of 0:18:54.840 --> 0:18:58.159 him was that he was a hand grenade waiting to 0:18:58.240 --> 0:19:00.399 go off, and he just didn't look hell. He was 0:19:00.480 --> 0:19:04.800 massively overweight, he was ruddy, complexion. You know, he just 0:19:04.920 --> 0:19:09.520 didn't look terribly healthy, but he could talk. He could really, 0:19:09.720 --> 0:19:13.200 really talk. He was amazing. So he sat down and 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:17.920 he started to explain this safe World's concept, which to 0:19:18.040 --> 0:19:22.399 me initially seemed to be this combination of almost an 0:19:22.440 --> 0:19:28.840 alternate internet marketing bizarre similar to Amazon or ali Baba 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:31.800 or eBay, but at the same time it had an 0:19:31.840 --> 0:19:36.840 e commerce perspective. But then the big selling point that 0:19:37.000 --> 0:19:39.520 he was trying to get across to us outside of 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:46.080 that was the creation of universal logic, And he said 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:50.320 he had discovered universal logic and the key to being 0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:54.359 able to allow all computers to talk together. So for 0:19:54.440 --> 0:19:56.359 people who don't understand, I'll try to put it as 0:19:56.400 --> 0:19:57.800 simply as I can, because I had to go and 0:19:58.119 --> 0:20:01.000 get people to explain it to me. Is it individual 0:20:01.040 --> 0:20:05.000 companies have their own proprietary rights. So you've got Apple 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:08.440 or Derl or hp orm and all of their programmers 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:12.520 right for them. So that's why Microsoft often doesn't sync 0:20:12.600 --> 0:20:17.160 with Apple, and Apple programs won't sync with Microsoft programs. 0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:21.280 The whole concept of universal logic was that regardless of 0:20:21.440 --> 0:20:25.119 who the programmer was or who the manufacturer was, the 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:29.320 computers worldwide would be able to talk to each other seamlessly, 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:33.520 and that was going to be the language of safe 0:20:33.560 --> 0:20:34.600 Woods effectively. 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:39.640 David was skeptical, especially when he learned that this key 0:20:39.760 --> 0:20:43.880 revelation that underpinned the whole scheme Allan was selling had 0:20:43.920 --> 0:20:46.000 been made while reading the Bible. 0:20:46.400 --> 0:20:50.880 And being an ancient history nut, I said to me instantly, 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:55.679 or was that the ra may Hebrew, Greek, Latin or English? 0:20:56.600 --> 0:20:59.320 And he's at English? And I just laughed. I said, 0:20:59.440 --> 0:21:01.199 you've got to be Joe. You know, if he had 0:21:01.240 --> 0:21:04.640 said it was in the Aramaic, I might have sort 0:21:04.680 --> 0:21:07.880 of believed part of it on the grounds that people, 0:21:08.000 --> 0:21:11.240 and you know, theologians and historians have been finding code 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:14.000 in the original Bible for years or what they deemed 0:21:14.040 --> 0:21:16.720 to be code. But what he was talking about was 0:21:16.840 --> 0:21:20.520 just tosh. You know, there were some scholars who believe 0:21:20.640 --> 0:21:24.399 now that parts of the English Bible had code that 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:28.800 had been implanted by Elizabeth the first spy master, Francis Bacon. So, 0:21:29.520 --> 0:21:31.600 you know, for him to suggest that, after so many 0:21:31.720 --> 0:21:38.800 rewrites and translations, that somehow, miraculously this language or code 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:42.240 or something had somehow materialized in the Bible, and only 0:21:42.320 --> 0:21:44.960 E had been able to find it after the Bible 0:21:45.000 --> 0:21:48.120 has been poured over by you know, thousands and thousands 0:21:48.200 --> 0:21:51.280 of scholars and theologians. It was just too much for 0:21:51.400 --> 0:21:53.480 me and I just couldn't. I couldn't swallow it. And 0:21:53.520 --> 0:21:55.800 I remember walking out of the meeting and the three 0:21:55.880 --> 0:21:58.040 of us went up to the Tatosles Club to have 0:21:58.160 --> 0:22:00.560 a beer before we went home, and they said what 0:22:00.600 --> 0:22:02.959 do you think? And I said, yeah, don't go near 0:22:03.040 --> 0:22:06.560 it now. I just don't buy it. To me, it just, 0:22:07.080 --> 0:22:09.919 you know, I thought it was just rubbish, complete rubbish. 0:22:11.600 --> 0:22:14.880 And there were other things that David found unbelievable too. 0:22:15.760 --> 0:22:19.800 I went down to look at an office space that 0:22:19.920 --> 0:22:23.720 they were talking about buying, and it was the Manly 0:22:23.840 --> 0:22:27.080 Rugby Union building, you know, Manly over the road from 0:22:27.119 --> 0:22:29.879 the Manly Oval. I thought, my god, I mean, this 0:22:30.280 --> 0:22:34.320 is this historic building. It costs an absolute bomb. How 0:22:34.400 --> 0:22:36.440 are you going to pay for all of this? You know, 0:22:37.080 --> 0:22:39.080 they were wandering around as if you know, oh yeah, 0:22:39.119 --> 0:22:42.080 we'll put this here and this there and that there, 0:22:42.240 --> 0:22:44.000 and I thought, my god, how are you going to 0:22:44.040 --> 0:22:44.320 pay for. 0:22:44.359 --> 0:22:44.680 All of this? 0:22:45.200 --> 0:22:46.960 And that was the problem. How were they going to 0:22:47.000 --> 0:22:47.280 pay for. 0:22:47.359 --> 0:22:47.720 Any of it? 0:22:49.040 --> 0:22:52.520