gina rinehart children

gina rinehart children

gina rinehart children - Australian billionaire Gina Rinehart embroiled in family feud, Australia's richest person, the mining magnate Gina Rinehart, has lost her battle to keep secret the details of a bitter family feud over money.

Rinehart, who is worth an estimated £11.5bn, has been locked in a court case for months with her three oldest children, John Hancock, Bianca Rinehart and Hope Welker Rinehart. They want their mother removed as head of the family trust, which owns just under a quarter of her company, Hancock Prospecting, and for one of them to be installed in her place.

The trust is estimated to be worth about £2.5bn.

 

Gina Rinehart applied to the courts to have the details of the feud suppressed, citing safety concerns for her family if the details of their wealth were made public. But the high court rejected her request.

The dispute over privacy goes back to September 2011 when, just before the family trust was due to pay out, Rinehart told her children they would face a massive capital gains tax liability of A$100m (£67m) unless they signed a new deed that would give her long-term control. She pushed the vesting date out until 2068, by which time the oldest child, John, would be 92 and Rinehart herself would be 114.

Rinehart's three oldest children allege she deliberately deceived them by changing the vesting date without their permission. They want her removed as head of the trust, alleging she engaged in serious misconduct, which she vigorously denies.

Rinehart's youngest daughter, Ginia, 25, who has sided with her mother throughout the dispute, issued a statement aimed squarely at her siblings. "While this case has been nothing but a destructive display of greed, jealousy and a selfish sense of entitlement on behalf of my siblings, I stand firmly on my own principles right next to my mother because it is the right and just thing to do," she said.

"Whatever their reasons, what my siblings are doing to my mother is unjustified. This is a private family matter that my siblings should never have dragged us all through publicly."

Hope Welker Rinehart, 27, the mining magnate's third child, said she was "deeply saddened" by her sister's statements.

"We have been very close our entire lives and I fear she has been used by our mother since at the time when the proceedings commenced, Ginia sent an email saying she supported us 100%," she said in a statement.

"We did not want to go to court but were given no option when threatened with bankruptcy if we did not immediately sign a deed to further relinquish our rights as beneficiaries [of the family trust]."

She said it was deplorable that she and her older two siblings had been subjected to vitriolic attacks on their characters. "The full facts can now be known and the public can judge for themselves," she said.

The bitter family feud has been in the spotlight in the past few months as Gina Rinehart's personal and professional profile has intensified.

 

Rinehart's mining empire is based in Western Australia's Pilbara region, an area the size of Spain, around 700 miles (1100km) north of Perth. Forbes magazine recently estimated her personal worth at £11.3bn, putting her ahead of Google's founders, and fast advancing on the $26bn (£17bn) family fortune controlled by Christy Walton of the US Wal-Mart dynasty.

In February, Rinehart became the largest single shareholder in Fairfax Media, which owns the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age in Melbourne, with a stake of nearly 13%. It followed her purchase of 10% of the commercial television network Ten.

Rinehart has accused her children of behaving like spoiled brats. Her lawyers issued a statement saying they had all enjoyed "very privileged lives" including private schooling, extensive holidays overseas, designer clothes, private health care, expensive jewellery and watches.

"Additionally the plaintiffs have each chosen multimillion-dollar homes with water views and swimming pools to enjoy. The trust income after tax was too small to provide the luxury homes, so these were provided to the three eldest children in addition to trust dividends and other benefits," the statement said.