ohr said the impact would tear his family apart and cost hundreds of others in his hometown millions of dollars, in some cases their entire life savings.
But this is the story of a West Australian man named Rod McCah.
Unfortunately, Mr McCaig, now 73, happened to sit next to “Queensland’s greatest scammer” Alan Metcalfe on a flight in 2000.
Alan is on his biggest and final spree: convincing Australians to invest in AI, a confounding case that is being exposed in news.com.au's investigative podcast The Missing $49 Million.
And Mr. McCaig was the biggest victim.
Not only did he sell his family farm to invest, he also convinced hundreds of people in his town to invest, raising $15 million for the scammers.
But in a bizarre twist of events, years later, Mr McCaig still stands by the man who deceived him, refusing to accept that it was all just a big scam.
Metcalf convinced hundreds of investors to shell out their money — in some cases, their entire life savings — because he discovered the secret code for artificial intelligence in the Bible.
But when he died in 2017, investors questioned what happened to their money, which was worth $49 million.
A huge amount of money has gone missing, no one knows where it is, and I am on a journey to find it.
I’ve already exposed Metcalfe’s life of fraud, which he described as dating back to his early 20s and talking to whistleblowers who worked at AI tech companies and believed it was all a scam.
My path of money will take me to a notorious tax haven, lead me to track down a self-proclaimed Irish billionaire and raise questions about whether Metcalfe himself is actually dead. It will take me from Australia’s most controversial politician to America’s megachurch to former US President Donald Trump.
The first four episodes of The Missing $49 Million are now available to listen to wherever you download podcasts. The eight-episode series will be released weekly.
Available on Spotify here and Apple Podcasts here.
Would you like more information? Contact us | alex.turner-cohen@news.com.au
Mr. McCah is a true believer in Metcalfe’s vision for his AI company, Safe Worlds, which is billed as “bigger than Google.”
According to emails obtained by news.com.au, Mr McCagh has lent Metcalfe $1.5 million to help keep the business afloat.
A Western Australian man sold his family's wheat and sheep farm to borrow $1.5 million from Metcalfe, according to news.com.au.
The problem is Metcalf can't pay him back.
Metcalf then convinced Mr. Macca to convert his loan into $1.5 million in Safe Worlds shares, but the shares are now worthless.
Mr McKay grew up in Geraldton, a city in Western Australia, five hours north of Perth on the coast.
He no longer lives there, but he still has strong ties to the town, and as a result, many other residents have invested in Safe Worlds as well.
Some of these people include Mr McCaig's cousin, his son, other friends and even people he has known since high school but hasn't spoken to in decades.
In an email, he wrote that he had personally brought in 450 shareholders, bringing the total investment to $15 million for Metcalf's project.
Mr McKah is heavily involved in the technology business, sitting on the advisory board of Safe Worlds and news.com.au understands he is planning to travel to the US on business with Metcalfe.
Some consider Mr McCah to be Metcalfe's “right-hand man” in Western Australia.
I tried to talk to Mr. Mackak several times, but to no avail, until finally I got this short answer.
“What is your agenda with Safe Worlds and/or what are you trying to achieve?” he told me.
“Any suggestion that Safe Worlds is a scam is misleading.
“The evidence is a review of the software by leading AI scholars.”
So even now, after all these years, Mr. McCarthy remains Metcalfe’s most loyal follower.
But as I was about to discover, cracks began to appear in his faith. He turned his back on the people he respected most, and later became the mortal enemy of Safe Worlds.
The first four episodes of The Missing $49 Million are now available to listen to wherever you download podcasts. The eight-episode series will be released weekly.
Available on Spotify here.
Available on Apple Podcasts here.
Alex Turner-Cohen@news.com.au
