Lawyer alleges Gina Rinehart committed ‘egregious fraud’ over transferred mining licences

“We don’t use the word fraud lightly,” lawyer Christopher Withers reportedly said during the trial over mining assets and royalties.

Withers represents Rinehart’s two eldest children John Hancock and Bianca Rinehart. He accuses Australia’s richest person and iron ore tycoon Rinehart of exploiting a joint venture agreement with Hamersley Iron to move Hope Downs and East Angeles tenements.

Hope Downs currently has total production capacity of approximately 47 million tonnes per annum and represents one of Australia’s largest iron ore projects. It is operated by Hancock and Rio Tinto.

According to the lawyer, the action was contrary to Lang Hancock’s intentions for Rinehart’s eldest children to benefit from the assets via a trust.

‘We say the evidence that fraud was perpetuated by Gina on her children is overwhelming,’ he said.

The actions were an alleged “cover up” with a “false narrative to her children and the public generally that (Hancock Prospecting’s) and her personal success was simply a product of hard work rather than dishonesty”, the Guardian reported.

According to Withers, the false narrative was that Lang Hancock dishonestly breached his fiduciary duty and mismanaged Hancock Prospecting, which “Gina had to clean up”.

“The truth is Lang discovered the mining areas in the Pilbara. He was the driving force behind the decision to start a mine, which Gina was against,” he said, in reference to Hope Downs mining complex.

In 2015, after a long-running legal battle, Gina Rinehart lost control of the roughly $3.8 billion family trust in court to John Hancock and Bianca Rinehart.