Forgotten daughter digs in to mining wealth
The granddaughter of a former mining boss has made a very specific list of demands in her bid to obtain more of her father’s legacy.
Magnate Michael Wright amassed a fortune on the back of mining royalties inherited from his father Peter Wright, a business partner of Lang Hancock.
Mr Wright had an estimated worth of $2.7 billion (according to the The West Australian, $1.5 according to The Australian) when he died in 2012, which is controlled by two of his daughters, Leonie Baldock and Alexandra Burton; directors of Wright Prospecting.
Wright’s youngest daughter – 19-year-old Olivia Mead – was left a $3 million trust fund that she can only access when she turns 30.
Ms Mead has now lodged a claim against the Wright estate, arguing that the trust was inadequate and did not include pledges made by Mr Wirght before he died.
The daughter wants to be set up for life, and to be provided a future that includes;
- a $2.5 million house (to be refurbished twice at a cost of $500,000),
- $300 a week for clothes, $800 a week for food, $400 a week for restaurant bills,
- $150 a week for fine wine,
- five pairs of $5000 shoes a year,
- 20 pairs of $300 shoes a year,
- $40,000 a year for holidays,
- two cars (an Audi A4 and a Toyota Tarago in case she wants a family),
- $10,000 a year for clothing and fashion accessories
- several thousand dollars for the upkeep of her dog, a ferret, a rabbit and an axolotl fish.
But the demands do not stop there.
Ms Mead wants a $100,000 wedding, a $9650 cello with five replacement cases, a $US1.2m limited edition Kuhn Bosendorfer grand piano possibly the most extravagant demand – a $250,000 Jens Ritter Royal Flora Aurum bass guitar, which features 24-carat-gold inlays, black diamonds set in platinum, solid gold knobs with 3 carat diamonds, a quilted maple body and a headstock nut made of 10,000-year-old Mammoth ivory.
Ms Mead told the WA Supreme Court this week that while she did not have a close relationship with her father “overall”, she had visited him several times a week prior to his death in April 2012.
She said her father told her he would adequately provide for her, and allegedly mentioned property would be left for her as well.
Ms Mead claims her father said she would be “set up” and “comfortable”, and that he was to leave her mother a letter with instructions.
But she was only awarded the $3 million trust fund in Mr Wright’s will.
“I looked at my needs, how I want to start a family, and what I'd like to do with my life,” Mead told the court.
But the lawyer arguing on behalf of the Wright’s accused Mead of just “thinking of everything you might possibly want and putting it down” to inflate her claim.
The case continues.