The world’s number four richest woman is battling a court a case filed against her by her own three children who want to remove her from the throne of the family’s multi-billion dollar trust.
Gina Rinehart is also Australia’s richest woman with an estimated wealth of more than $18 bn.
Three of her four children including; John Hancock, Bianca Rinehart and Hope Welker want their mother removed from the control of the trust. The court in Sydney has ruled against her.
She has spent several weeks trying to keep the dispute over control of a family trust behind closed doors however; the lid has finally been lifted on an ugly family dispute.
On Friday Rinehart lost a bid to go to the High Court, but it took until today for documents at the heart of the case to be released.
The children of Australia’s wealthiest woman may have a long time to wait before they can enjoy the family fortune. Gina Rinehart has an estimated wealth of more than $17 billion, derived from coal and iron ore assets.
Documents released from court today contain allegations that Gina Rinehart secretly delayed the date her children will receive the family trust to the year 2068.
It’s also claimed that Gina Rinehart threatened her children with a huge tax bill if she was not given long-term control of the family trust.
Gina Rinehart emailed her daughter Hope and said, “This lawyer stuff will never work and all that will result is on massive tax leaving you in bankruptcy.”
There are also claims that Gina Rinehart offered her daughter Bianca a quarterly payment if she agreed to withdraw from the legal proceedings.
Documents also contain a statement from Gina Rinehart saying that her siblings should not receive part of the family trust because, “None of the plaintiffs has displayed the degree of perseverance, work ethic, responsibility and dedication that would be required to administer the trust.”
On Friday, Gina’s brother, John Hancock, released his own statement saying, “I won’t be able to replicate my youngest sister Gina in ‘earning’ the achievement of a Rolls Royce at 25, but at 36, and I’m now using my set of skills to earn enough for my family.”
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