Gina Rinehart’s only son referred to her as ‘fatty’: He urged sister to join him in legal action, court hears

Gina Rinehart / Picture: Kym Smith Source: News Corp Australia

 

GINA Rinehart was repeatedly referred to by her only son as “the fat” and “fatty”, with emails revealing John Hancock urged his sister Bianca to join him in legal action against their mother over their trust. 

The emails were tendered yesterday as Bianca Rinehart claimed the family company has a policy to “keep the children in the dark”, telling a court that crucial documents about the long disputed trust were “deliberately withheld”. Emails between 2004 and 2006 were tendered, showing Mr Hancock told his sister “Fat would have quickly grown tired of supporting your shopping and leisure activities” and “hopefully you will have another man to take care of you” in the aftermath of her break up with swimmer Grant Hackett.

John Hancock, Gina Rinehart’s son / Picture: Sam Mooy Source: News Corp Australia

 

“You can send my correspondence and your reply to fatty (in hoping she will pay for your Mandarin education), but at the end of the day you will still come off second best,” Mr Hancock wrote in the May 2004 email.

Less than a decade later, the siblings united in a bitter trust dispute against their mother, Australia’s richest person.

Bianca Rinehart agreed under cross examination yesterday that her allegation of “misleading and deceptive conduct” made against her mother “is a very serious one”.

“Yes, and I stand by it,” she told the Federal Court in Sydney yesterday.

Bianca Rinehart and Mr Hancock last year lodged the Federal Court case, alleging a “breach of fiduciary duty” by their mother in the handling of family trusts. The case is separate to action in the NSW Supreme Court, which has sought to remove Gina Rinehart as trustee of the Hope Margaret Hancock Trust.

Bianca Rinehart outside court / Picture: Andrew Murray Source: News Corp Australia

 

In this current case, the two children from her first marriage are seeking a share of major mining projects, including the Roy Hill iron ore project, claiming those tenements were either part of, or planned to be a part of, the trust established for them by their grandfather Lang Hancock.

The court heard that at the time of Mr Hancock’s death in 1992, the Hancock Family Memorial Foundation trust held 33 per cent of the shares in the family flagship company Hancock Prospecting and the tenements for Hope Downs and Mulga Downs and was “pursuing” the exploration licence for Roy Hill.

John and Bianca’s barrister Christopher Withers told the court yesterday that, over time, Mrs Rinehart changed the assets of the trust, leaving the trust the children were beneficiaries of “with virtually no assets”.

Ms Rinehart, during a tense cross-examination by her mother’s barrister, said she signed the trust deed because: “I was taking for granted that what my mother was presenting was the truth, as most children probably do.”

She alleged the attitude of Hancock Prospecting was: “Don’t give the children anything (document wise), keep the children in the dark.”

Bianca and her brother argue that their claim, if they are successful in court, “could be forceable against the assets” of Hancock Prospecting.

The hearing continues today.

Bianca Rinehart arrives at the Federal courts in Sydney with her legal team / Picture: John Grainger Source: News Corp Australia

news.com.au 27 Apr 2015

Another one of Australia's elite white collar criminal gang.

Tax evasion with offshore shelf companies is considered criminal action in Australia, but the authorities allow these criminals to continue trading.

Gina Rinehart's father 'Lang' Hancock referred to troubled Indigenous Australians as a problem, which he considered should be killed off by poisoning the water, making them unable to breed so that they would become extinct.

"Gina Rinehart’s only son referred to her as ‘fatty’" - but she is....