Rinehart defrauded her children in ‘calculated’ scheme, two of them claim

afr.com:

Australia’s richest person Gina Rinehart engaged in a “calculated and deliberate fraud” of her own children by transferring away from them the rights to valuable mining tenements in the 1990s, their lawyers claim.

The mining magnate breached her fiduciary duty by transferring the ownership of Pilbara tenements from a company that her children would one day control and benefit from into the control of Hancock Prospecting, Christopher Withers, SC, alleged.

“We don’t use the word fraud lightly,” Mr Withers said as he outlined John Hancock and Bianca Rinehart’s case on Monday at the WA Supreme Court.

Bianca Rinehart on her way into the WA Supreme Court with her barrister Christopher Withers SC on Monday. Trevor Collens

He alleged Mrs Rinehart had removed mining tenements out of a company constructed for the benefit of her children by her father Lang Hancock, into Hancock Prospecting, which she ultimately controlled.

“Lang was simply not prepared to give Gina everything she wanted, which was everything,” Mr Withers said, adding that he wanted some of his assets to flow to his grandchildren after he died.

When John Hancock sought to question his mother over her dealings, he was met with a “barrage of lies, threats and intimidation”, Mr Withers said. Bianca Rinehart made an unexpected appearance in court on Monday, with her husband, Sasha Serebryakov.

The court also heard extraordinary details of Mrs Rinehart’s relationship breakdown with her father through the 1980s after her marriage to Frank Rinehart, who Lang Hancock did not approve of because he denigrated his mining ventures.

That rift was further inflamed with Lang Hancock’s marriage to his former house cleaner Rose Porteous, who the court heard Mrs Rinehart attempted to