Gina Rinehart’s son John Hancock emails released by WA Supreme Court

Gina Rinehart’s son accused his mother of stealing billions from her children to enrich herself by allegedly removing the Hope Down tenements from their family trust about a decade ago.

Gina Rinehart with her son John and daughter Ginia.

Gina Rinehart’s son accused his mother of stealing billions from her children to enrich herself by allegedly removing the Hope Down tenements from their family trust about a decade ago, ­according to reports.

Emails released in a separate royalties matter before the West Australian Supreme Court on Thursday reveal Mrs Rinehart’s son, John Hancock, had been preparing a legal challenge against his billionaire mother in 2004 and 2005.

In email correspondence with his sisters Ginia, Hope and Bianca Rinehart, Mr Hancock accused his mother of removing the Hope Down tenements in the Pilbara region which are estimated to be worth billions.

“She has stolen 33 per cent of the family company from us children,” Mr Hancock wrote, ­according to The Australian Financial Review.

“She has breached her fiduciary duties … and enriched ­herself.”

Wright Prospecting is suing Mrs Rinehart’s Hancock Prospecting, seeking hundreds of millions of outstanding royalties and a return of its share in East Angelas. That share is estimated to be worth well over $1bn.

John Hancock.

Bianca Rinehart.

In other correspondence released by the court, Mr Hancock wrote to his sister Bianca Rinehart in May 2004 and attacked her for not engaging in the legal challenge he was mounting to remove their mother as head of the family trust.

“I’m disappointed, Bianca, about your attitude towards … the trust,” he said.

“You know it’s wrong. I wonder what your attitude would be if you had not brokered your $18,000 from New Idea.

“I know that you know that you will share in the benefits of my actions … If it fails, I will face the consequences and I know you will be as weak as ever and sidle up to (Gina Rinehart) and say you were never part of it.”

Ms Rinehart replied her conscience would never allow her to go to court against their mother.

In a 2003 email, sent when Mrs Rinehart was battling her ­father John Hancock’s widow, Rose Porteous, Mr Hancock boasted of turning the media against the Porteous camp.

“I hope that you will remember the effort I put in, especially in turning the tide in the media against the Porteous camp,” he wrote.

At the centre of the case is a 1987 agreement between Wright and Hancock in which Wright says it extinguished its interest in Hope Downs in exchange for a royalty. No royalty has ever been paid to Wright, despite the deposits having been mined by Rio Tinto since 2007.