Thread: Australia : Gina Rinehart

We are just doing this for fairness: son
Steve Pennells
March 17, 2012


We are just doing this for fairness: son

The bar on the ground floor of the Mandarin Oriental is packed shoulder-to-shoulder with Hong Kong bankers and expats, except for one booth in the centre where an unassuming businessman waits for John Hancock, the only son of the richest person in Australia.

He smiles with recognition when Mr Hancock walks in and the pair hug. The man pulls 30 red envelopes out of his jacket pocket, each packed with $HK1000 notes in Chinese Lei See tradition. He pushes them into his friend's palm: "There's more to come."

Mr Hancock's partner, Gemma, takes the cash up to their hotel room for safekeeping. They count the money later - about $A80,000.It is Thursday night in Hong Kong - less than a week since the Hancock battle went public - and one of the underlying questions in the bitter stoush is being answered: how do three siblings, cut off from the family funds and already selling clothes and jewellery on eBay, pay for legal action against a woman worth $17 billion?

_The Weekend West _ can reveal that the man in the bar, Mr G, is a key figure in a loose coalition of cashed-up international businessmen who have agreed to secretly fund the costly battle being waged by Mr Hancock and his sisters, Hope and Bianca, against their mother.

He is one of the most well-connected people in Hong Kong with lucrative operations across Asia. _The Weekend West _ knows who he is but he would only speak on the condition of anonymity.

He says he approached some of his contacts over two days last week - many of whom had never met the Hancock family - to raise the first instalment to help Mrs Rinehart's three estranged children. The case had got a lot of coverage in Asia, he says, and sympathy is on the children's side.

A week earlier, when Mr Hancock first mentioned his cash problems, the man wired $35,000 from his Swiss bank account and said he wanted to throw his friend a fundraising party in Hong Kong.

"The Chinese place high importance on family," Mr G says, insisting there are no ulterior motives behind his decision to help.

"A mother usually does all she can to help her children, especially the son. Where this natural order of things is displaced, the Chinese will be easily engaged.

"Finding support for John is easy. I will keep putting money in and so will my friends. I don't ask for anything in return - I don't need a pound of flesh to help a friend."

Mr Hancock has been in Hong Kong for two days to shore up support. Mr G, with his ability to open doors (and wallets) is central to the bid.

After the red envelopes change hands, the night moves onto a rooftop bar in the CBD and then a French restaurant in a small side street, where a Chinese billionaire with interests in Australia is working his way through several bottles of Napa Valley wine with three flirty French models, a bodyguard at the end of the table and his driver asleep in the Rolls-Royce outside.

He also insists on remaining anonymous and is meeting Mr Hancock, via Mr G, for the first time. After dinner, the billionaire and the models leave, urging Mr Hancock to join them at a club. He declines.

It is a high-end night but Mr Hancock - with a $7 haircut and a story that has captured the interest of the Hong Kong elite - is only a passenger. The businessman and the billionaire pick up the bills and wave him away when he offers to pay.

They leave pledging their support, firming up the network of donors being assembled by Mr Hancock and his two sisters to pay the $100,000 a month the battle against their mother is costing them.

In the first full interview Mr Hancock has given, he told _The Weekend West _yesterday that he and his two sisters had met litigation funders but said the return they wanted on their investment was "extortionate".

So he worked the phones, approaching friends and businessmen who agreed to lend him money or give him cash.

"My sisters had paid the first few hundred thousand dollars of legal bills," Mr Hancock said. He had already lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in his unsuccessful 2004-07 battle with his mother.

"When the girls ran out of money for lawyers there was a lot of stress among us," he said.

"I don't have $100,000 a month either and that's the average of what our lawyers are costing.

"A good QC starts at $8000 a day. Its been going for six months now and no lawyer works for free.

"Bianca has done everything she could. She sold her house after paying off the mortgage over 10 years. Hope went as far as selling some jewellery and using virtually all her savings.

"Bianca right now is selling clothes on eBay.

"We are not flying in private jets or driving around in Rolls-Royces, I assure you. Hope is struggling to pay rent from July and Bianca and I are dipping into our limited pockets to help her with kids' school fees.

"I don't say this to extract sympathy - many people do it much tougher - but the perception is there that both sides of this are very wealthy and squabbling for more. The reality is their side (his mother and youngest sister, Ginia) has everything. As it stands and we have nothing. I don't think that's fair."

Up to September last year, Mr Hancock says he was being paid a salary from Hancock Prospecting and his sisters, Hope and Bianca received money from the family trust.

But as soon as they launched legal action against Mrs Rinehart, his salary was terminated and payments to the girls frozen. Only Ginia, who has sided with her mother, is believed to be receiving funds from the trust.

Mr Hancock produced financial records showing significant earnings as a day trader that supported him and his family but said this was nowhere near enough for the legal fees.

When Mr G offered to help him, he thought "why not?"

"As long as these people have no connection to the mining or steel industries, fine," Mr Hancock said. "That's the only request I made of him.
"There can be no call from the other side of a conflict of interest. And no strings attached. He said it was a matter of pride for these people to be able to help me, nothing more. And he wanted to use his network to help."

Mr Hancock says he knew there would be speculation over the backers, particularly those in Australia, and their motives.

"(They) are high net-worths from around Australia and no, Andrew Forrest is not one of them, and no, they are not promised a thing from the court case or any settlement. It's a personal loan, no strings attached.

"Nobody wants to be known to be giving me these personal loans but its been a few hundred thousand dollars out of Australia already and commitments for much more if needed.

"They know the risks - they know the limited assets I have now are under my mother's control - she even has the title deed to my house in Thailand as the funds I used to buy it are from a loan, not a lump sum of cash. I think the only thing I own myself is my Toyota."

Of Gina Rinehart's four children, Mr Hancock, who changed his surname from Rinehart by deed poll after an early falling out with his mother, has had the most tumultuous relationship with her and is on the tightest legal leash.

Documents tabled in the NSW Supreme Court reveal that he has been tied to at least six secret agreements over the past decade which collectively prevent him challenging his mother, saying anything which could "embarrass" her or lower her public standing or even talking about the existence of the agreements.

In the interview, he carefully navigates the non-disparagement clauses revealed in the contracts and is careful not to criticise his mother.

After his three-year battle to get her removed as head of the family trust ended unsuccessfully in 2007, he spent part of the settlement moving to an island off Thailand where he designed and built his own house and retreated from view.

"I knew living in Perth would be expensive and that chances were it would get uncomfortable for my family in later years so I bought a block of land in Thailand around 2007 for $240,000," Mr Hancock said.

"Low living costs and the same time zone for business and a springboard for Asia. It made a lot of sense.

. "I designed the house myself as I didn't want to pay for an architect. We got a local draftsman to help and we started building 2008. We moved in around Christmas 2010.

"I'd call it tropical luxe. It's got grass thatch roofs and lots of bamboo. It cost less than a house in Nedlands, that's for sure.

"And I know the right people on the island so I feel pretty safe. It's when I leave the island that I don't.

"Many of the friends who are helping me now have villas on the island. They work in Hong Kong. But I keep a low profile anywhere I go, I prefer it that way.

"I've never been 'given' property in Australia or overseas - I bought and sold a one-bedroom place in Perth a few years ago and I rent my Mother's guard house from her for $400 a week. But I'm making enough to support my family independently."

Mr Hancock said he told Mr G that if his mother came to an agreement before the donated funds were spent, he would return the Chinese money.
"I don't need charity for my personal expenses, I can earn my own way," he said.

"And I'll be making some donations if money does come my way. Karma dictates. It's been a fortunate turn of events, it's been a huge stress to know you can't pursue what is right because you can't afford lawyers."

He said he wanted his mother to know that he had financial support and "that any strategy to starve us of funds so we can't pay lawyers is hopeless".

"I can keep going for as long as she wants to resist stepping down from the trust - hopefully before she turns 112, as I'd like to be able to provide adequate security for my children, not just a nice coffin.

"Neither me or my sisters want this to drag out for one day longer than it has to, or our faces appear in the newspaper for that matter. We are doing this for fairness and so we can provide urgent security costs for our children now that so much publicity has been attracted."

Mr Hancock said that some of the most damaging publicity came from security reports presented by Mrs Rinehart's legal team, which he said exposed where the four children lived and how vulnerable they were because of a lack of security.

"This is urgent and I call again on my mother to step down so we can provide for these unusual costs that other families do not have to bear as they go about their daily lives," he said.

"The worst thing of all, for my sister Bianca and I, is that we both really want to work in the family company. We are old enough to support ourselves independently if forced to, and are doing so - I've proven that - but it would be personally rewarding for both of us to have a real involvement in Hancock Prospecting.

"Sadly, this has been made impossible."

au.news.yahoo.com

Dunno why, but Oz seems to produce a breed of billionaire that only a mother could love.

Anyway, it's certainly selling papers, this rich family spat. Gina's response- she recently bought 12% of the Fairfax group, which along with the dirty digger shares a duopoly of the Australian newspaper industry. She also tried every legal avenue- exhaustively- to keep this out of the media, and failed. It's a good thing for Gina that being a billionaire isn't a popularity contest, because if that was the case she would be a pauper.

I'm sure Rose Porteous ne' Hancock (quite a piece of work herself) is having a good chuckle over this.

Australian tycoon 'is world's richest woman'

SYDNEY — Australia's richest person Gina Rinehart has eclipsed Wal-Mart heiress Christy Walton to become the world's wealthiest woman, according to an annual index by Business Review Weekly.

A preview of the respected BRW Rich 200 list, published Wednesday, put the mining tycoon's personal fortune at Aus$29.17 billion (US$28.48 billion), a figure that sees her outstrip Walton for the first time.

In March, Forbes placed Walton and her family's net worth at US$25.3 billion, while Rinehart's fortune stood at US$18 billion.

BRW rich list editor Andrew Heathcote said mining magnate Rinehart had almost tripled her wealth in 12 months as commodity prices rose and she pulled off two deals in iron ore and coal.

"The Aus$18.87 billion increase in her wealth is unparalleled. It is a product of foreign investment in new projects, increased production and a recovery in the iron ore price over the past six months," said Heathcote.

Rinehart, 58, heiress to an iron ore prospecting empire built in Australia's resources-rich west, is a controversial figure who stridently campaigned against new mining taxes and recently bought up big in the media sector.

She is also locked in a series of lawsuits, including an acrimonious row with her own children over a family trust where she has been accused of threatening to financially ruin them.

Heathcote said Rinehart was on track to overtake Mexican telecommunications tycoon Carlos Slim -- worth US$69 billion -- as the world's richest person as demand ramps up for Australia's natural resources.

"A $100 billion fortune is not out of the question for Rinehart if the resources boom continues unabated," said Heathcote.

"There is a real possibility that Rinehart will become not just the richest woman in the world but the richest person in the world."

The full BRW list of Australia's richest people, the upper rungs of which are usually dominated by mining tycoons, will be unveiled on Thursday.

google.com

"And I know the right people on the island so I feel pretty safe. It's when I leave the island that I don't.".

Phuket? Or Samui?

Interesting story, I'd never even heard of her, sounds like the Getty family after JP died.

EMMA ALBERICI, PRESENTER: The lid has finally been lifted on an ugly family dispute involving Australia's richest woman. Gina Rinehart has spent months trying to keep the row over control of a family trust behind closed doors. On Friday she 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.

John Stewart reports.

JOHN STEWART, REPORTER: 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 Ginia 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, Ginia's brother, John Hancock, released his own statement saying, "I won't be able to replicate my youngest sister Ginia in 'earning' the achievement of a Rolls Royce at 25, but at 36, I'm now using my set of skills to earn enough for my family."

Queensland senator Barnaby Joyce was keen to side with Gina Rinehart and contacted her daughter Hope Reinhart Welker by email, saying, "... before it gets really out of hand, I would try to get it back in house and out of the public view."

Barnaby Joyce also said that, "Newspapers and lawyers get people to say nasty things".

Liberal MP Alby Schulz also sent an email to Gina Rinehart's daughter Hope. "Dear Hope. We read with so much sadness of the litigation that you have instigated against your mother. Whilst we do not know all the problems that give rise to this horrific step, because we love and care about you we felt we had to share our experience with you. ... It is already making you look like a member of the Rose Porteous family, not your mother's wonderful and beautiful daughter."

Outside of court, uncertainty about the ultimate ownership of the Rinehart fortune may be damaging the family business.