Speaker 1: Yeah, Hi, Mary, I think we spoke.
Speaker 2: Yeah, how did it go so wrong to have a
Speaker 2: journalist knocking on your door on a quiet Gold Coast
Speaker 2: street in the middle of the day. There's someone else
Speaker 2: tangled in the complicated web of Allan Metcalf. They've been
Speaker 2: on the periphery of my investigation until now. It's time
Speaker 2: she takes center stage. Buckle in, because this story is
Speaker 2: about to go from the already pretty bizarre to outright ridiculous.
Speaker 2: I'm Alex Turner Cohen, a finance and investigative reporter from
Speaker 2: news dot com DoD AU, and you're listening to the
Speaker 2: Missing forty nine Million. This is episode five, Mother Mary.
Speaker 2: After Allan's death, his followers feared their investment was gone,
Speaker 2: all forty nine million dollars of it. They expected the
Speaker 2: business to shut down forever. But then Alan's wife, Mary
Speaker 2: Metcalf took over. They went back to hoping and praying
Speaker 2: that the hard earned money they'd handed over would once
Speaker 2: again be returned to them at a hefty profit. But
Speaker 2: what happened afterwards? And can Mary help with the search
Speaker 2: for the money?
Speaker 3: But the time will come when I will get out
Speaker 3: there and promote all the things that Alan had achieving
Speaker 3: true artificial intelligence when the.
Speaker 4: Time is right.
Speaker 2: This is Mary speaking at her husband's funeral in twenty seventeen,
Speaker 2: when she was sixty eight years old. Her son Clayton
Speaker 2: Metcalf was also going to help out.
Speaker 3: Clayton I pledged we commit to commercialize this technology and
Speaker 3: take it to the world to fulfill his dream. I
Speaker 3: know that this sounds impossible, but Jesus said, with men,
Speaker 3: it's impossible, but not with God. For with God all
Speaker 3: things are possible. We have the faith and we call
Speaker 3: upon God and your prayers for this to come true.
Speaker 2: Just five days after her husband's death, Mary emailed shareholders
Speaker 2: reassuring them of her plans for the company. Throughout this episode,
Speaker 2: we're using a voice actor to read out Mary's emails,
Speaker 2: so keep in mind these are her words, but not
Speaker 2: her voice.
Speaker 1: I have been the company's CFO from the beginning, working
Speaker 1: closely alongside Allan, and I am totally familiar with all
Speaker 1: aspects of the Safe World's TV project. I have committed
Speaker 1: to take over Allan's work to establish this company as
Speaker 1: he intended, with the help of my son Clayton Metcalf.
Speaker 1: The finest celebration of his legacy is that all of
Speaker 1: us who can now pledge to liberate this gift to
Speaker 1: benefit humanity.
Speaker 2: Mary seemed to genuinely believe in what her late husband
Speaker 2: had started. She even titled the video of Allan's funeral
Speaker 2: as stay Strong and Keep the Faith. But investors were nervous.
Speaker 2: They wondered how someone other than Alan could run a
Speaker 2: project of this magnitude. Michael Blake, the sporting star who
Speaker 2: invested three hundred thousand dollars, hadn't thought of Mary as
Speaker 2: the chief financial officer of Safe Worlds. He'd seen her
Speaker 2: as the office manager.
Speaker 4: Alan was hands on on the software and doing interviews,
Speaker 4: trying to raise money, doing all the meetings, and Mary
Speaker 4: is probably in charge of the office and all the paperwork,
Speaker 4: the admin, you know, all the stuff that has to
Speaker 4: be done.
Speaker 2: Mary had been at Alan's side for much of his life.
Speaker 2: She tagged along with him on his business trips to
Speaker 2: the US, and her signature was on the hundreds of
Speaker 2: share certificates issued right next to Allan's. He had signed
Speaker 2: as chief executive of Safe Worlds and she had signed
Speaker 2: as its secretary. I want to know more about Mary
Speaker 2: metcalf I found out so much about her late husband,
Speaker 2: but what about the woman herself? This is what comes
Speaker 2: up after I searched the Internet. Originally from Hungary, she
Speaker 2: moved to Australia with her family when she was ten
Speaker 2: and changed her name from Maria to Mary. Alan became
Speaker 2: her life partner when she was seventeen. The Age newspaper
Speaker 2: called her a prominent national party housewife in a nineteen
Speaker 2: eighty article. She was also the publisher of Townsville Woman,
Speaker 2: one of several magazines Alan launched, which went bust in
Speaker 2: the nineteen eighties. In there, she said she was not
Speaker 2: a woman's liberation person and highlighted success stories in motherhood
Speaker 2: and commerce. More recently, in a profile on an American website,
Speaker 2: she was named a twenty fifteen Professional Woman of the
Speaker 2: Year for her work at Safe Worlds. The New York
Speaker 2: based National Association of Professional Women bestowed the award. Warren Bardon,
Speaker 2: an investor from Geraldon who we heard from last episode,
Speaker 2: was impressed.
Speaker 5: It was spoken about Mary that she got Businesswoman of
Speaker 5: the Year in bons Land or something that's sort of
Speaker 5: charges people say or they know what they're doing.
Speaker 2: Mike Brooke is the IT blogger we heard from in
Speaker 2: another episode whose parents got mixed up in the scheme.
Speaker 2: When he heard about Mary's award, he felt something was off.
Speaker 5: The more I followed him and the more he talked
Speaker 5: about how he was trying to sell to this company
Speaker 5: and this company, and he would have things like he
Speaker 5: would put on his emails out that Mary had won
Speaker 5: this prestigious award of women and business. And then when
Speaker 5: you actually go and look at what this award is,
Speaker 5: it's a pay to play. It is an award that
Speaker 5: you pay for and then you get a prestigious award.
Speaker 2: The National Association of Professional Women got in trouble for
Speaker 2: offering women free membership but then houning them credit card
Speaker 2: payments of annual fees of up to one thousand dollars
Speaker 2: and for extra you could be profiled on their website.
Speaker 2: I've contacted Mary and the National Association of Professional Women
Speaker 2: about claims that this award was paid for, but no
Speaker 2: response has been received. One thing is certain, though, Alan
Speaker 2: left mother Mary holding the baby because when Alan died,
Speaker 2: the federal government was officially investigating the company. But why
Speaker 2: was Safeworlds in trouble? The answer is hiding in plain sight.
Speaker 2: Remember the back of those share certificates that said the
Speaker 2: company wasn't registered under any laws in the US or
Speaker 2: anywhere else in the world. Well, Australian authorities were not happy.
Speaker 2: The Australian Federal Police, also known as the AFP, raided
Speaker 2: Alan's Safeworld's officers and also his home multiple times. They
Speaker 2: took computers and documents and apparently crippled the Safe World's operation.
Speaker 2: The AFP tell me the.
Speaker 6: AFP executed search warrants on behalf of Assek at a
Speaker 6: home and business on the Gold Coast and an office
Speaker 6: in the Brisbane CBD in November twenty sixteen. The AFP
Speaker 6: executed search warrants on behalf of ASSEK at the same
Speaker 6: locations in January twenty seventeen. As this matter concerns and
Speaker 6: ASSEK led investigation, all other inquiries should be directed to them.
Speaker 2: The Australian Securities and Investments Commission ACIK for short, is
Speaker 2: the country's corporate regulator, and someone or several someones had
Speaker 2: passed on their concerns. In twenty sixteen, ASEIX started looking
Speaker 2: into Alan and Safe Worlds, so I reach out to
Speaker 2: ASEIK to find out more and put in a freedom
Speaker 2: of information request. Two months later, I learned that the
Speaker 2: metcalf sent forty five emails to Assek. Sixteen of those
Speaker 2: were from Allen. His last email to them was just
Speaker 2: three days before his death. Unfortunately, Acik wouldn't tell me
Speaker 2: what was said in those emails, just that those emails existed.
Speaker 2: It's frustrating. I would give almost anything to know what
Speaker 2: Alan was saying. Was he surprised that authorities were looking
Speaker 2: into him or had he been bracing for it for years.
Speaker 2: When Alan passed away, Assek turned to Mary as the
Speaker 2: new boss. Safegolds had failed to register as a foreign
Speaker 2: company as required under the law. The company was also
Speaker 2: offering shares to Australian investors without proper disclosure documents, which
Speaker 2: was a breach under the Corporation's Act. Safegolds had to
Speaker 2: enter into what is known as an enforceable undertaking.
Speaker 7: The company and Mary Metcalfe have offered, and Asek has
Speaker 7: agreed to accept as an alternative to Assek in exercising
Speaker 7: its civil powers and or its administrative powers against a
Speaker 7: company or others. The company will not offer securities that
Speaker 7: require disclosure, and Mary metcalf will not be involved in
Speaker 7: the offer of security dies that require disclosure.
Speaker 2: Essentially, Mary wasn't allowed to sell any more Safe Worlds
Speaker 2: shares and she had to register the business as a
Speaker 2: foreign company. Mary also had to inform shareholders of the scolding,
Speaker 2: and it was posted up onto the Internet for all
Speaker 2: the world to see.
Speaker 1: In September twenty sixteen, ASSEK commenced an investigation into Safe
Speaker 1: Worlds as it was concerned about the way in which
Speaker 1: we had raised money from investors. Safe Worlds has not
Speaker 1: registered with ASEK as a foreign company, and Acik has
Speaker 1: been concerned that Safe Worlds has not complied with its
Speaker 1: obligations under the Corporations Act. On the twenty third of
Speaker 1: August twenty seventeen, Safe Worlds provided a signed, enforceable undertaking
Speaker 1: to ASEK.
Speaker 2: That's part of the email from August twenty seventeen which
Speaker 2: Acik shared online. It's pretty humiliating and a pretty big deal.
Speaker 2: Anyone who looks up her name or Safe Worlds will
Speaker 2: find that for many investors this was vindication proof that
Speaker 2: their concerns about the company hadn't been totally imagined. Some
Speaker 2: of them wished that this had happened years before to
Speaker 2: spare them from ever trusting the company with their money.
Speaker 2: I want to know more so I write to Mary
Speaker 2: again asking about this asset decision. Eventually she writes back,
Speaker 2: and I'm amazed she's blaming.
Speaker 1: Allan Asek found no financial impropriety, only breaches of what
Speaker 1: could be seen without belittling their importance as more technical rules,
Speaker 1: in particular the number of shareholders we could sell to
Speaker 1: without the expense of a prospectus. My husband erroneously believed
Speaker 1: that the limit applied on each issue and not the total. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: we should have had access to continuous legal advice, an
Speaker 1: area where we had tried to save expenses.
Speaker 2: So Mary is saying that her husband's stinginess by trying
Speaker 2: to save money or legal advice was what landed them
Speaker 2: in hot water. Maybe that's completely understandable. We all make mistakes,
Speaker 2: but ACIK wasn't going to let them go completely. The
Speaker 2: corporate regulator reserved their rights to take Safe Worlds to court,
Speaker 2: either civilly or criminally in the future. I wonder how
Speaker 2: common is it for a company to be investigated like this.
Speaker 8: We're just going to go straight to questions this morning.
Speaker 9: Ye I'll ask you about a few matters. Have you
Speaker 9: been following this inquiry?
Speaker 3: We have?
Speaker 9: Yes, yeah, Okay, So you would know broadly the themes
Speaker 9: which has been focusing on. Like I just I want
Speaker 9: to ask you about a.
Speaker 8: Few things today.
Speaker 10: Do you think that we.
Speaker 9: Have a problem with white collar crime in Australia?
Speaker 11: Senator I'll pause, Alex, I'm trying to think about that
Speaker 11: answer that without expressing an opinion.
Speaker 9: On that one.
Speaker 2: You're listening to a Senate inquiry into ASCIK. From November
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three, New South Wales Senator Andrew Bragg was
Speaker 2: leading a parliamentary inquiry into ASSEK, which recently finished. That's
Speaker 2: him grilling some representatives from the Treasury. Months after that hearing,
Speaker 2: I sit down with Senator Bragg in his office with
Speaker 2: stunning views of Sydney Harbor. Senator Bragg leans back on
Speaker 2: his chair as he tells me why it's important to
Speaker 2: watch the Watchdog. Can you tell me a bit about
Speaker 2: why this inquiry was started in the first place. What
Speaker 2: were some of the concerns that made it get off
Speaker 2: the ground.
Speaker 9: Well, I was concerned that there were a spate of
Speaker 9: instances where people were not being held to account where
Speaker 9: they had clearly broken the law. And I worried that
Speaker 9: white collar crime was a major issue in our country.
Speaker 9: The key finding, I think has to be that the
Speaker 9: reason we see a cycle of ongoing white collar crime
Speaker 9: is because no one's afraid of acid. In the last year,
Speaker 9: the gray Barrier, Marine pac or I already achieved more
Speaker 9: criminal prosecutions than corporate law enforcement. It's not very sexy,
Speaker 9: but it's very important to a lot of people, because
Speaker 9: ultimately what's happening is there's a lot of white collar crime.
Speaker 9: It's damaging the economy. People are getting done over, There
Speaker 9: are no opportunities for compensation for people who get done over,
Speaker 9: and it's bloody outrageous.
Speaker 2: I ask Senator Bragg for his take on the civil
Speaker 2: penalty that Safe World's received. He won't comment specifically, but
Speaker 2: he did say this about penalties generally.
Speaker 9: That's the main finding from the inquiry, that the criminal
Speaker 9: penalties are not used and there's an over alliance on
Speaker 9: civil penalties, which are like speeding tickets. A think there's
Speaker 9: a lot of powers. It loves civil penalties, but I
Speaker 9: think that some people should be banned for life from
Speaker 9: doing financial services or acting as a company director. And
Speaker 9: until you see heads on spikes, then I don't think
Speaker 9: you're going to see any change.
Speaker 2: As I leave Andrews's office. It strikes me that Assex
Speaker 2: seems pretty useless, a toothless tiger, and knowing this, I
Speaker 2: now think it's even more significant that Asik took an
Speaker 2: interest in Safe Worlds. I decided to ask Asik about
Speaker 2: Mary and her business. The law enforcement body tells me
Speaker 2: they struck the deal with Mary Metcalf before the twenty
Speaker 2: nineteen Financial Services Royal Commission. Since then they've changed their
Speaker 2: enforcement culture and also the circumstances where they'll accept an
Speaker 2: unforcable undertaking. The Royal Commission was a pretty shocking spotlight
Speaker 2: into our financial sector and it rocked Australians. The Commission
Speaker 2: handed down a number of recommendations, including a push for
Speaker 2: ASSEK to take more companies to court for wrongdoing rather
Speaker 2: than simply striking settlement deals. Senator Bragg's inquiry into ASSEK
Speaker 2: finished in early July and its findings were grim. He
Speaker 2: absolutely eviscerated the regulator in his report to Parliament, finding
Speaker 2: it failed miserably in protecting the Australian public. The Senator
Speaker 2: is now calling for complete overhaul of the government organization.
Speaker 9: Every time there's been a problem in Canberra since ninety
Speaker 9: ninety seven, it's been given to ACIK, and ACIK is
Speaker 9: now a monolith. It is so big and it can't
Speaker 9: possibly be successful as a sprawling financial services regulator and
Speaker 9: as a company's regulator, which is why we have recommended
Speaker 9: a new structure for corporate law enforcement in Australia, which
Speaker 9: would be a splitting of asseg UP and a creation
Speaker 9: of two new bodies.
Speaker 2: So it's hard to get ACIK to take people's complaints seriously,
Speaker 2: and yet they did for Safe Worlds. But as I
Speaker 2: start diving deeper, I'm shocked to discover that this wasn't
Speaker 2: even the biggest issue Safeworlds faced under Mary's leadership, because
Speaker 2: while all this was going on, Mary was trying to
Speaker 2: broker a deal to sell the company. Michael Blake, the
Speaker 2: Sydney former sports star who invested a fortune, tells me
Speaker 2: this is where things get really weird.
Speaker 4: Not long after Alan passed away, Mary sent out an
Speaker 4: email telling us all that she was going to take
Speaker 4: it up and get a result in carry on Allan's work.
Speaker 4: And then not long after that, she said that she'd
Speaker 4: got a pocket call from this stuff guy from Ireland
Speaker 4: that Alan had been speaking with, and that he was
Speaker 4: really sad that Alan had passed away, but he did
Speaker 4: whatever he can to help get the project up and going,
Speaker 4: and it turned into that he was done to buy
Speaker 4: Safeworld or the technology for a couple of billion dollars.
Speaker 2: John Duff is an Irish businessman, offering a fortune for
Speaker 2: Safe Worlds two point two five billion US dollars with inflation.
Speaker 2: That's worth about two point eight eight billion today, which
Speaker 2: is four point four to six billion in Australian dollars.
Speaker 2: It seemed like an answer to everyone's prayers. Our God
Speaker 2: send a miracle. Mary emailed shareholders, saying we.
Speaker 1: Are as anxious as all shareholders are to see this
Speaker 1: matter concluded soon and on the best of terms, I
Speaker 1: am doing everything I can to achieve this.
Speaker 2: As a shareholder himself, Michael says he was excited.
Speaker 4: So it's one hundred thousand shares, okay, Well that's thirty
Speaker 4: three dollars a share. Well that's not too bad. So
Speaker 4: I've you've got one hundred thousand shares, that's three point
Speaker 4: three million dollars or whatever it is. You know, you've
Speaker 4: got two hundred and five hundred, ten thousand shares, and
Speaker 4: that's so we kind of thought okay, I'll be happy
Speaker 4: with that.
Speaker 2: John Duff, the potential buyer, was going to fund the
Speaker 2: multi billion dollar purchase through his company. A few months later, though,
Speaker 2: Duff changed his tune. He said he'd fund the sale personally.
Speaker 2: Given the price Duff was willing to pay was apparently
Speaker 2: over two billion, that would mean he must be a
Speaker 2: billionaire himself, But Michael tells me he's never heard of
Speaker 2: a billionaire called John Duff. In Australia, people with a
Speaker 2: new worth of over a billion are all known. There's
Speaker 2: only one hundred and fifty of them, and Ireland has
Speaker 2: a much smaller economy and population in Australia. I try
Speaker 2: to dig up everything I can about this mysterious irishman,
Speaker 2: and the information is sparse. Aside from a LinkedIn page,
Speaker 2: there's very little online about John Darff at all. He's
Speaker 2: from Mullingar, from the Ireland county of Westmeath, with a
Speaker 2: population of just twenty two thousand people. Investor Charlie Weinbean,
Speaker 2: the man whose tip off kickstarted my investigation into Safe Worlds,
Speaker 2: tells me he was suspicious of the deal from the start.
Speaker 12: I became skeptical, of course, but then the first email
Speaker 12: that we got after his passing away was from Mary,
Speaker 12: in which he was saying that nothing would change and
Speaker 12: she was going to continue. Alan was gone, but the
Speaker 12: Safe Worlds were still there and they were just continuing
Speaker 12: with business as usual pretty much. But then we got
Speaker 12: the crazy emails, you know, like the one from jumping
Speaker 12: from investor to the other, the ones that really started
Speaker 12: making me skeptical.
Speaker 2: The emails he's referring to came from Rod McKay, the
Speaker 2: farmer from Geralton who poured one point five million dollars
Speaker 2: into the scheme and encouraged hundreds of others to invest.
Speaker 2: Up until this point, Rod was a Safe Worlds fanatic,
Speaker 2: but the John Duff deal was making him lose his faith.
Speaker 2: Rod McKay sensationally quit the Safe World's Advisory board. Then
Speaker 2: he got into a very long, wild exchange of emails
Speaker 2: with Mary metcalf. As you know, Rod has declined to
Speaker 2: speak to me or help with my investigation. But luckily
Speaker 2: for me, he copied in lots of other investors into
Speaker 2: these emails. Most had deleted or lost them, but Warren
Speaker 2: Bardon from Geralton had saved them all. He printed them
Speaker 2: off and handed them to me in a big folder.
Speaker 2: When I visited him last episode. The emails fill up
Speaker 2: nineteen pages. I read them all in one sitting, not
Speaker 2: quite the l leaving what I'm seeing. I can't tell
Speaker 2: you some of what was in Rod's messages because I
Speaker 2: wasn't able to verify it. Here's what I can tell you.
Speaker 2: These are Rod's words, but not his voice.
Speaker 13: My quest for a return from shareholders on their investment,
Speaker 13: and because of my belief in the Safe World's product.
Speaker 13: A preliminary investigation has been completed on the ground in
Speaker 13: Ireland by a contact of mine. The time for delusion
Speaker 13: is over. The reality of the Irish deal can now
Speaker 13: be seen for what it is.
Speaker 2: One of the people Rod had introduced to the Safeworld's
Speaker 2: program was from Ireland. This investor returned to his homeland
Speaker 2: in twenty nineteen and decided to look into who Duff was.
Speaker 2: In a series of emails sent over a few months,
Speaker 2: Rod revealed what they'd uncovered.
Speaker 13: John Duff was born in nineteen thirty three and had
Speaker 13: moved to New York and had become a policeman and
Speaker 13: later worked for the CIA. He has six children to
Speaker 13: one one life and four children to four other women.
Speaker 13: His son had a demolition company in London and died
Speaker 13: on the twenty fifth of June twenty twenty. He has
Speaker 13: paid one hundred and twenty four euros from the Irish
Speaker 13: government every week. He has an office works print out
Speaker 13: his emails and he collects them. He does not have
Speaker 13: a desktop or laptop.
Speaker 2: As I'm pouring over these files, the chain of events
Speaker 2: gets crazier on every new line. Next, Rod writes that
Speaker 2: Mary wanted her son looked after.
Speaker 13: It was a source of amusement to Duff that a
Speaker 13: make or break condition of a multi billion dollar deal
Speaker 13: was that Mary's son, Clayton, had to be given a job.
Speaker 2: Rod had blacked out important names in the emails, including
Speaker 2: the name of Duff's company, and even more strange, Duff
Speaker 2: was referred to as JB throughout the exchange, like some
Speaker 2: kind of spy alias. Rod said he was able to
Speaker 2: find this all out by talking to a former business
Speaker 2: associate of Duff's. The only thing I have is the
Speaker 2: name John Duff and the name and date of his
Speaker 2: son passing away. I find his son's death notice on
Speaker 2: a funeral website, which does indeed prove Duff had six
Speaker 2: children from his first marriage. Now I also have the
Speaker 2: area in Ireland that Duff is from, and from there
Speaker 2: I'm able to track down the name of his company,
Speaker 2: Copthorn Trust Corporation Limited. For two euros fifty I get
Speaker 2: a business extract on it from the company's registration office,
Speaker 2: which is exactly what it sounds like, Ireland's corporate regulator.
Speaker 2: Those documents show that yes, stuff was born. In nineteen
Speaker 2: thirty three. One Sydney investor Jay Martin Covits, was watching
Speaker 2: the email exchange play out from a distance. He tells
Speaker 2: me he invested ten thousand dollars into Safe Worlds, and
Speaker 2: as Ji I learned more about the Irish deal, he
Speaker 2: was worried what this meant for his money and if
Speaker 2: he'd ever see it again.
Speaker 11: I find it very strange that someone would pooney up
Speaker 11: with a billion dollars plus of money, which at that
Speaker 11: time I don't think it was even suggested there had
Speaker 11: been a meeting. So for someone to invest in a
Speaker 11: system that they haven't seen or done any due diligence
Speaker 11: on would be crazy, yet alone at that level of money,
Speaker 11: so I question that as far as the valuation of
Speaker 11: the platform itself, the only way you could possibly even
Speaker 11: justify anywhere near that level of valuation for the system
Speaker 11: would be if Alan had artificial intelligence. If he had that,
Speaker 11: sky's a limit. If he didn't have it, I think
Speaker 11: it's worth nothing zero.
Speaker 2: Duff himself seemed to have similar concerns. He thought Safewards
Speaker 2: was worth two hundred and thirty thousand dollars, not two
Speaker 2: point three billion, according to Rod's investigations. Mary emailed investors
Speaker 2: in late twenty nineteen to say that Duff would have
Speaker 2: the first one point five billion dollars in place by
Speaker 2: the end of the year. But if Duff is getting
Speaker 2: a one hundred and twenty four euro a week living
Speaker 2: allowance from the government in his old age, how can
Speaker 2: he afford any of this? Things took another turn. Duff
Speaker 2: had a business partner who was also the co director
Speaker 2: of the company Copthorn Trust. Company documents show this man
Speaker 2: resigned just a week after Mary's announcement. Rod pointed out
Speaker 2: this discrepancy in yet another email.
Speaker 13: It seems highly improbable that this person would resign just
Speaker 13: when the deal was coming to fruition.
Speaker 2: Nothing was adding up.
Speaker 13: It's a mythical purchase, cannot be backed by its timeline.
Speaker 13: Non refundable deposit or stand by letter of credit.
Speaker 2: Rod's emails infuriated Mary. This is her reply.
Speaker 1: I find it incomprehensible that a former member of the
Speaker 1: committee is conducting an insulting and defamatory campaign against the
Speaker 1: only person who has shown any in the purchase of
Speaker 1: Safe Worlds. I have now seen documentation which indicates that
Speaker 1: John Duff's finances are falling into place.
Speaker 2: Mary said all this negative information on Duff was coming
Speaker 2: from a former business associate of his who was disgruntled
Speaker 2: because he'd been dismissed from Copthorn Trust. But when I
Speaker 2: try to verify this, records revealed Duff's ex business associate
Speaker 2: was not sacked. Instead, this man officially resigned. John Duff
Speaker 2: and this man were co directors of Copthorn Trust. The
Speaker 2: business associates contact details are on a document I find online.
Speaker 2: I give it a go. This man eventually gets back
Speaker 2: to me. He doesn't just want to chat, he wants
Speaker 2: to meet. It's ten PM and I'm lying in bed
Speaker 2: on my laptop when I receive the reply. I send
Speaker 2: a half delirious message to my colleague about this breakthrough
Speaker 2: in the case because I'm excited. For months the details
Speaker 2: of the Irish deal have been just out of reach.
Speaker 2: Talking to Duff's business associate might change that, and as
Speaker 2: luck would have it, he's actually traveling to Australia very
Speaker 2: soon and we agree to meet when he's here, dressed
Speaker 2: in a suit. He has a soft Irish accent and
Speaker 2: a firm handshake. He doesn't want me to record our
Speaker 2: conversation or for me to use his real name, so
Speaker 2: I'll call him Declan. He lets me take notes though,
Speaker 2: during our conversation, and that's what a voice actor is relaying.
Speaker 2: I ask him about his former business partner, the mysterious
Speaker 2: John Duff, the so called billionaire investor who receives one
Speaker 2: hundred and twenty four euros from the Irish government every
Speaker 2: week and offered to spend over two billion buying out
Speaker 2: Safe Worlds.
Speaker 14: John had been talking to a man from Dundee University.
Speaker 14: He told John about Safe Worlds. This was when it
Speaker 14: came onto the scene for him.
Speaker 2: John Duff had promised to get Declan funding for a
Speaker 2: humanitarian venture he was working on to stop child sex trafficking.
Speaker 2: This is how they ended up as business partners. But
Speaker 2: Duff never raised the promised funds because something else was
Speaker 2: taking up all his time.
Speaker 14: Every day I went into the office, he was talking
Speaker 14: to missus Metcalf. They were on the phone day and night,
Speaker 14: Australia being nine hours ahead of us. The last thing
Speaker 14: at night John called. She was besotted with him, accepting
Speaker 14: everything he said. Mary grabbed at a straw, and that
Speaker 14: straw was John Duff. John absolutely had her hook line
Speaker 14: and sinker.
Speaker 2: Declan confirms that part of the deal was for Mary's son, Clayton,
Speaker 2: to get a job.
Speaker 14: If you're given this woman two point two five billion dollars,
Speaker 14: what the hell does her son need a job for.
Speaker 2: Declan confirms that yes, John Duff did print off emails
Speaker 2: at his local office works and he tells me John
Speaker 2: had claimed to be XCIA.
Speaker 14: I rang Mary up numerous times and said, if you
Speaker 14: have someone else to take this project, take them because
Speaker 14: we have no money. I told her straight up. I
Speaker 14: have never added to John's story. I said, John, you
Speaker 14: don't have this money. All we were were two muppets
Speaker 14: from the other side.
Speaker 15: Of the world.
Speaker 2: But Mary didn't agree. As for John's role, Declan declares.
Speaker 14: I'd be certain that he didn't go in with the
Speaker 14: idea of scamming he went in with the idea of
Speaker 14: making money for himself.
Speaker 2: Things soured pretty quickly, though, and Diclan had to get out.
Speaker 14: I'd had enough, I'd saved him from embarrassment. John accused
Speaker 14: me of stealing documents before I left, some of the
Speaker 14: documents related to Mary. It was just one paper with
Speaker 14: bank details on it. That was it.
Speaker 2: This was the last text Declan sent to Mary.
Speaker 14: Hello Mary, just a quick note to let you know
Speaker 14: that I never stole anything from anyone in my life.
Speaker 14: Look after yourself and your shareholders who have committed themselves
Speaker 14: to your husband's ideals. Keep them close, as they are
Speaker 14: the only real thing in this whole sorry affair.
Speaker 2: My mind is race after this such an odd situation
Speaker 2: and an odd rave of people who've been sucked into
Speaker 2: this seemingly never ending saga. While talking to Declan certainly
Speaker 2: didn't answer some of my questions, it feels good at
Speaker 2: least that I've heard it from the source now and
Speaker 2: not third hand. Through some emails. I also learned that
Speaker 2: money was supposed to come from another associate of Duff's,
Speaker 2: a Danish woman called Jit Marstrand. I get hold of
Speaker 2: her number. We speak over the phone. After multiple texts
Speaker 2: where we try to work out the time difference. This
Speaker 2: is someone reading out her words.
Speaker 16: John and I are in the same business funding humanitarian
Speaker 16: and environmental projects. He was in the CIA Meals Center
Speaker 16: the Middle East. Those were the wild days. He got
Speaker 16: shot in the face.
Speaker 2: Jit says Duff's life wasn't quite so exciting now as
Speaker 2: he's in a nursing home. When I ask her about
Speaker 2: Safe Worlds, she vaguely recalls it.
Speaker 8: I don't know safe Worlds. Intimately.
Speaker 16: I think missus Metca wasn't very pleased with John. My
Speaker 16: involvement was the request from John to try and find
Speaker 16: a leader to fund the new IT technology.
Speaker 8: For a while, he spoke about it daily.
Speaker 16: He couldn't substantiate the two point two five billion to
Speaker 16: any provider.
Speaker 8: John was very proactive. Maybe he talked too much too early.
Speaker 2: And Jit is pretty confident she could get Duff the
Speaker 2: billions of dollars he needed.
Speaker 16: There are large amounts of historical funds in China and
Speaker 16: the King Solomon funds. They're all around the world. It
Speaker 16: takes a lot to get this money released. I could
Speaker 16: introduce him to these accounts at the time.
Speaker 2: There's a biblical tale of King Solomon abandoning his mind
Speaker 2: somewhere in a desert in Israel. He apparently stored five
Speaker 2: hundred tons of pure gold worth more than three point
Speaker 2: seventy six trillion Ossie dollars, But two years ago historians
Speaker 2: completely debunked this tale as a myth. Jit is vague
Speaker 2: when I ask her about the King Solomon reference and
Speaker 2: tells me that there are quad trillions of dollars worth
Speaker 2: of historical funds out there. Rabbit hole is not something
Speaker 2: I ever imagined I'd be researching for this podcast, and
Speaker 2: it sounds, in all honesty insane with or without this
Speaker 2: mythical pile of biblical gold. Jit also says she could
Speaker 2: have got duff that required two point twenty five billion
Speaker 2: dollars for the Safeworld's purchase in just a few days.
Speaker 8: We do create money like that.
Speaker 16: If someone invests forty four million, the banks can make
Speaker 16: money with that by trading it.
Speaker 8: In ten days, you'll have a billion.
Speaker 2: That's not exactly true. There's no guarantee for something like that.
Speaker 2: Otherwise wouldn't everyone do it? Jit sounds like the latest
Speaker 2: in a line of unconvincing characters in this story. I'm
Speaker 2: feeling confused and frustrated after all this, not sure what
Speaker 2: to believe or who so imagine how Safe World's investors
Speaker 2: were feeling. They were desperate. The chances of John Duff
Speaker 2: paying them billions was disintegrating before their eyes, so they
Speaker 2: took matters into their own hands. Emails to her shareholders,
Speaker 2: Mary claimed Safewolds was using a US lawyer to broker
Speaker 2: the Irish deal, so investors decided to contact this lawyer,
Speaker 2: Thomas Schmull, a partner at Philadelphia law firm Dwayne Morris.
Speaker 2: I recognize the name. Alan and then Mary had named
Speaker 2: Thomas Schmul and his law firm over the years as
Speaker 2: their legal advisors in updates to shareholders. But Schmul's response
Speaker 2: to investors was surprising. Not only did he reveal he
Speaker 2: was no longer representing Safeworlds, he was also owed money,
Speaker 2: and he demanded that Mary stop name dropping him. He
Speaker 2: sent an email to Mary that said, a.
Speaker 15: Shareholder said, to us, copies of communications that you have
Speaker 15: had with him and presumably others, which imply that either
Speaker 15: I or Dwayne Morris represent you, the company and or
Speaker 15: its shareholders, we do not, and therefore we must insist
Speaker 15: that you cease representing stating or applying to anyone that
Speaker 15: we we now represent the company at shareholders, you, or
Speaker 15: any prospective purchaser in connection with any sale of the company,
Speaker 15: and given what is transpired, it is highly likely that
Speaker 15: we would decline to represent any such parties going forward.
Speaker 2: In another email, Schmul said.
Speaker 15: We referred to certain conditions for our firms involvement in
Speaker 15: the transaction in the event which we did not and
Speaker 15: do not consider to be likely that mister Duff proceeds
Speaker 15: with the purchase and funds it.
Speaker 2: Those conditions were that they needed proof from Duff's bank
Speaker 2: that he really did have access to billions of dollars
Speaker 2: and that he would settle an outstanding payment Safeworld's owed
Speaker 2: to the law firm. Thomas Schmull also said he was
Speaker 2: unable to assure himself of the required due diligence in
Speaker 2: relation to the whole deal. The lawyer and his firm
Speaker 2: did not respond to my questions at this point. The
Speaker 2: whole Safeworld's John Duff CIA Agent Biblical goal Us Law
Speaker 2: Firm drama is a swirling mix of contradictory claims and counterclaims,
Speaker 2: with Safeboard investors completely unable to work out what was
Speaker 2: fake and what was real, if anything even was to
Speaker 2: begin with, and then the multi billion dollar Irish rescue
Speaker 2: of the business faulted. It just never happened. Mary went quiet.
Speaker 2: Rod shared his thoughts about that in another email to
Speaker 2: Mary in twenty twenty.
Speaker 13: You have overseen the demise of a fifty million dollar
Speaker 13: company made up predominantly of mum and dad investors.
Speaker 2: John Duff is ninety years old now. I attempt to
Speaker 2: contact him for comment by emailing him and contacting the
Speaker 2: nursing home he's now living in. I never hear back,
Speaker 2: so I write to Mary again. She tells me over email.
Speaker 1: We had a contract subject to finance with John Duff
Speaker 1: for US two point two five b in to buy
Speaker 1: the world license. Unfortunately, the contract fell through. Unfortunately, some
Speaker 1: of our shareholders say tacked and criticized him to such
Speaker 1: a degree that he decided to wipe his hands of
Speaker 1: further involvement in the corporation. Since then, I have had
Speaker 1: a blanket rule that until a purchaser is close to completion,
Speaker 1: I cannot reveal his or her name and details. This
Speaker 1: seems to be the most sensible rule. I and before me,
Speaker 1: my late husband, were both satisfied that he was genuine.
Speaker 2: But I want to talk to Mary face to face,
Speaker 2: so I fly up to the Gold Coast. I knew
Speaker 2: it would come to this point somewhere down the line.
Speaker 2: She's the only one really who knows what to make
Speaker 2: of all this. The prospect of seeing her after all
Speaker 2: my months of investigations is nerve racking but also exciting.
Speaker 2: Mary might have answers. She might be able to help
Speaker 2: me understand what happened, what happened to all the money.
Speaker 2: But if this doesn't go well, maybe I'll never know,
Speaker 2: and neither will all the investors. Circle around Mary's block
Speaker 2: a few times, psyching myself up. Then I weighed through
Speaker 2: long grass to a humble looking one story brick house.
Speaker 2: I wrapped my knuckles against a fly screen door. It's yeah, Hi, Mary,
Speaker 2: It's Alston mc cohen from dot com. Are you from
Speaker 2: news dot com? Are you? I think we spoke. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I was really happy to chat to you again about
Speaker 2: the same pod.
Speaker 14: I really don't want to talk about.
Speaker 3: It gone missing.
Speaker 2: The forty nine million dollars has gone missing.
Speaker 3: Forty million dollars in the project. It's it hasn't gone missing.
Speaker 2: Where is it?
Speaker 1: Then?
Speaker 8: With the money.
Speaker 3: Well, it's been spent on the project developing the system.
Speaker 2: But how is all that money spent on a project
Speaker 2: that nobody ever saw.
Speaker 3: The investors know what we've done. We've done a Bajor
Speaker 3: test for over three years. They know the system, and
Speaker 3: ASIK investigated the system from November to July, they found nothing.
Speaker 1: Couldn't recommend that that's what it was.
Speaker 3: Just that we didn't register the US company in Australia.
Speaker 2: And that we.
Speaker 3: Solved too many shareholders in one year and.
Speaker 4: That was it.
Speaker 1: Well, you didn't make him right this plasure.
Speaker 3: I don't want to talk to.
Speaker 2: Mary doesn't want to continue to talk to me after
Speaker 2: this point, so I leave. Some shareholders have surmised Mary
Speaker 2: might have been living the high life using their money,
Speaker 2: but I certainly haven't seen any evidence of that. As
Speaker 2: I've said, her home was pretty ordinary looking and property
Speaker 2: records show she doesn't even own it. She rents there
Speaker 2: and doesn't have any real estate under her name. Meanwhile,
Speaker 2: her son Clayton, part owns a mortgaged house in the
Speaker 2: Gold Coast with his wife. He doesn't have any other
Speaker 2: properties that I could see. Could Alan have hidden the
Speaker 2: money so well that not even his own family knew
Speaker 2: where to find it? Or is Mary right? Was the
Speaker 2: money all spent on safe worlds? But then why aren't
Speaker 2: there any financial reports from the company? Are nothing more
Speaker 2: than a clunky, disused website to show for it? Or
Speaker 2: is it possible something else happened? I think I know
Speaker 2: where to look next to find out. It involves a
Speaker 2: mystery gold that you can't physically touch and the notorious
Speaker 2: Cayman Islands. That's next time on the missing forty nine million.
Speaker 5: Now that I've seen a certificate the digital belt doesn't exist.
Speaker 2: Looks fake.
Speaker 8: That's the most fake certificate I've ever seen.
Speaker 13: A class action may well result.
Speaker 10: They are told I'm a thing by Alan Lloy's what
Speaker 10: that was? In a safe somewhere? I see thing dies, Laura?
Speaker 10: What's going to happen all this information? And I was
Speaker 10: told that it's in a safe a safe place.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening. A new episode is coming out weekly
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Speaker 2: dot Au to read more of my reporting on this story.
Speaker 8: Do you know more?
Speaker 2: Get in touch through our dedicated tip inbox Missing Millions
Speaker 2: at news dot com dot au or contact me directly
Speaker 2: on Alex dot Turner, Dash Cohen at news dot com dodau,
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Speaker 2: I'm your host, Alex Turner Cohen. Nina Young is the
Speaker 2: executive producer. Sound design and editing by Tiffany Dimack. Our
Speaker 2: editorial director is Dan Box. Grant McAvaney is our legal advisor,
Speaker 2: and Kerrie Warren is the editor of news dot com Doreau.
Speaker 2: Special thanks to our voice actors Margo Murphy, Andrea Tis Evanson,
Speaker 2: Sherene Khalil, James Morrow, John ty Burton, Paul Byrne and
Speaker 2: Briel Burns. Also thanks to producer Bechday for her helpful
Speaker 2: I Was in the Gold Coast