Former INXS manager Maria-Christina Copinger-Symes at war with family over $500m fortune
The inner ructions of an uber-wealthy Sydney family have spilt in an international court battle over its $500 million fortune.
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A former manager of rock icons INXS is at war with her family over its $500m fortune in an explosive case that has revealed the wealthy dynasty’s vicious infighting.
Maria-Christina Copinger-Symes, the one time European manager for INXS, is also a member of the Australian Perez de la Sala clan that built its enormous wealth on the back of her late grandfather’s international business and shipping empire.
But the 55-year-old has launched legal action in the NSW Supreme Court accusing several family members of cutting her out of the family fortune.
The Singapore based businesswoman claims in court documents that she is entitled to a slice of the riches because her grandfather, Robert Perez de la Sala, wanted his wealth to support his “family and lineal descendants”.
Instead, Ms Copinger-Symes claims she received nothing while two of her siblings and an aunt each received $20m.
She also claims her parents secretly gifted $53m to her ex-husband, former UK army major, James Copinger-Symes, around the time of their split in 2022.
The ex-music manager has accused family members, including her Mosman-based mother, Felicite, of committing “an equitable fraud” by not adhering to her grandfather’s wishes.
She is suing five of her blood relatives, including her mother, uncle Ernest Perez de la Sala, and her ex.
Ms Copinger-Symes asked the court to award her $20m plus “wages and full salary that she would have received as a custodian of the trust,” her statement of claim said.
The businesswoman has also asked for an order that the $60m allegedly “gifted” to her three siblings be “made available” to her, the document said.
She also wants some of her ex’s $53m after claiming it came from the trust.
The family is yet to file a defence statement.
Born in 1908, Ms Copinger-Symes’ grandfather, Robert Snr, rose to be the boss of an international business empire, which included shipping supplies, marine engineering and real estate holdings.
He relocated to Australia and media reports at the time of his death in 1967 said he was one of the country’s richest people.
Court documents said Robert Snr’s son, Ernest, “kept running” the operation and made financial “distributions” to his mother and siblings, who included Ms Copinger-Symes’ father, Robert Jr.
In recent times, the family has been plagued by internal conflicts.
This year, Ms Copinger-Symes won a UK court battle to not pay her ex a $2.5m divorce settlement after discovering the $53m gift.
Fights with her parents resulted in Ms Copinger-Symes being removed from her late father’s will and banned from attending his 2022 funeral, the UK court heard.
The Sydney case has links to another family war that played in a Singapore court.
In 2012, Ms Copinger-Symes, her then husband, and brother, sued Ernest over allegations he moved the family fortune out of its business accounts, her statement of claim says.
The Singapore court ordered the money be returned to the accounts.
Ms Copinger-Symes claims that her father and Ernest drew up a deed of settlement in 2020 that distributed the fortune to family members.
However, Ms Copinger Symes claims she received nothing while others received at least $20m each.
She claims to have been given a “redacted” copy of the deed in which the details of distributions were “blacked out”.
In 2003, Ms Copinger Symes claims she sacrificed her career to move to Singapore and be trained to run the family’s assets at the request of her father and uncle.
Ms Copinger Symes alleges her uncle said she would take over as the “custodian of the family legacy and its pool of assets” and would earn substantially more than the “pile of beans” she got from her previous job.
She is also fighting a similar case against her family and ex in the Singapore Supreme Court.
On May 9, Justice Michael Slattery ordered Ms Copinger Symes return to the Sydney court 21 days after the Singapore case concludes to decide if she will continue the case.
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Originally published as Former INXS manager Maria-Christina Copinger-Symes at war with family over $500m fortune
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