‘What has happened is injustice’: Tiger Lily loses out on Michael Hutchence’s music royalties

THE daughter of late INXS frontman Michael Hutchence has lost out on her father’s music royalties, an explosive report claims.

TIGER Lily Hutchence, the daughter of late INXS frontman Michael Hutchence, has missed out on a significant chunk of royalties from her father’s music potentially running into the tens of millions of dollars.

According to an investigation by the ABC’s Four Corners, as part of the global Paradise Papers offshore tax haven leak, the rockstar’s former lawyer Colin Diamond instead controls much of the estate, and separately owns the company holding the music rights.

Uncovered in the leak of more than 13 million documents were handwritten papers revealing how a company called Helipad Plain was established in the tax haven of Mauritius in 2015 as part of a deal between Mr Diamond and music entrepreneur Ron Creevey.

Helipad Plain’s stated aim was the “commercial exploitation of the sound recordings, images, films and related materials embodying the performance of Michael Hutchence”, Four Corners reported.

According to Rhett Hutchence, his brother wanted any money from his estate to be split with 50 per cent going to his now 21-year-old daughter, then 10 per cent each to his father, mother, sister, brother and partner Paula Yates.

Colin Diamond, coexecutor of Hutchence's will, featured in the Channel 7 documentary Michael Hutchence: The Last Rockstar. Picture: Seven

In fact, the intellectual property rights were never part of Michael Hutchence’s estate. They were owned by a British Virgin Islands company called Chardonnay Investments, of which Mr Diamond became the sole owner after Hutchence’s death.

“The reason for this is that he was a trusted friend of Michael Hutchence and because of that and the fact that he (MH) had various family issues, he left Colin Diamond to deal with the assets of Chardonnay,” a lawyer for Mr Diamond wrote in an email contained in the Paradise Papers.

While Tiger Lily Hutchence declined to comment, Four Corners reported that she had received some money from Mr Diamond but “nothing like” the full value of her father’s rights.

The front page of The Sun newspaper in 1996 showing Paula Yates and Michael Hutchence with their new baby daughter, Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily Hutchence.

“My understanding is that Colin Diamond is well disposed to Tiger Lily and discusses matters with her, but that is between them,” Mr Creevey told the program. “I am no longer involved in the unreleased music side of things.”

Rhett Hutchence also raised questions about how Mr Diamond came into possession of Hutchence’s most personal belongings after he took his own life in the Double Bay Ritz-Carlton hotel in November 1997.

“Two days after Michael died, Colin Diamond went into the Rose Bay Police Station, acting as Michael’s attorney, and took hold of all of Michael’s possessions that he had with him in Australia,” he told Four Corners.

“He kindly left the belt that Michael used for my father to pick up. My father was — I mean, the whole family was completely shocked that he had actually taken all this stuff. None of that stuff has ever been released to the family. That should have been part of the estate. It’s the family stuff.

“I think it’s about time we had a platform and told what’s been going on, because it’s, it’s injustice, you know? What has happened is injustice.”

But Mr Diamond has previously stated that he kept Hutchence’s diary and other personal possessions “for Tiger for many years”.