‘Intent to defraud’: Linda Reynolds says Brittany Higgins tried to shield assets
In a major escalation, Linda Reynolds alleges Brittany Higgins intended to ‘defraud future creditors’ by setting up a trust to protect money she received in her $2.4m commonwealth payout.
In a major escalation of her defamation case against Brittany Higgins, Linda Reynolds has alleged Ms Higgins intended to “defraud future creditors” by setting up a trust to protect money she received in her $2.4m commonwealth compensation payout.
Senator Reynolds on Monday began legal action to set aside the trust so she can access any assets still held by Ms Higgins if she wins her upcoming defamation case against her former staffer.
The former defence minister is proceeding with the defamation case against Ms Higgins and her fiance, David Sharaz, saying their false allegations that she was party to a cover-up of Ms Higgins’s rape destroyed her reputation.
The move follows judge Michael Lee’s judgment that Bruce Lehrmann raped Ms Higgins, but that Senator Reynolds had not been a party to any cover-up and that Ms Higgins made untrue representations when settling a deed with the commonwealth in return for the $2.4m.
In an application filed in the WA Supreme Court on Monday, Senator Reynolds has demanded a copy of the Brittany Higgins Protective Trust deed, set up in February last year, to ascertain who is the trustee – and who to sue in the event Ms Higgins claims not to be able to meet costs or damages awarded.
The trust should be set aside as it was “made with the intent to defraud future creditors” when Ms Higgins made representations to the commonwealth knowing the particulars “especially in relation to the handling of the allegations of sexual assault by my office, were false,” Senator Reynolds says in an affidavit that has been filed with the application.
Senator Reynolds sets out in her affidavit a series of events arising between December 2022 and January 2023 that she says explain why she believes the trust, established in February 2023, should be set aside because it was created by Ms Higgins “with the knowledge of potential impending indebtedness”.
These include Ms Higgins’s knowledge that she received $2.4m from the commonwealth in circumstances when she knew particulars of the claim – especially in relation to the handling of the sexual assault allegations by Senator Reynolds, were false; and when Ms Higgins knew she might be obliged to repay money to her publishers, Penguin Random House Australia, given the outcome of the criminal trial against Bruce Lehrmann and Senator Reynolds’s warning to Penguin that the memoir would contain defamatory allegations against her.
Just weeks before the trust was established, Ms Higgins was also aware that Senator Reynolds had brought defamation proceedings against her fiance, Mr Sharaz, in January 2023.
The pre-action discovery would require Ms Higgins to produce all documents in her possession comprising the trust or any other trust created to hold any part of the $2.4m awarded by the commonwealth.
Senator Reynolds cites an article in the Daily Mail published in August 2023 that stated that “following the settlement, Ms Higgins took Mr Sharaz on a holiday to the Maldives, rented a house on the Gold Coast, and then set up a discretionary investment trust in February – which protects her assets from any future lawsuits.”
In a separate letter filed with the application, Senator Reynolds’s lawyer, Martin Bennett, tells Ms Higgins’s lawyer: “This information would only have come from Ms Higgins.”
“For these reasons I verily believe (Ms Higgins) has established a trust for the purpose of protecting some of her assets from litigation”, Senator Reynolds says in her affidavit.
“I have concerns (Ms Higgins) will not be able to satisfy a potential judgment debt in the defamation proceedings in the event I am successful due to some part of her assets being transferred to the trust.”
Senator Reynolds also notes that she sought legal advice on getting freezing orders against Ms Higgins after learning she had bought a property in France, but held off an application for the orders in order not to interfere with an upcoming mediation.
Senator Reynolds’s solicitors wrote to Ms Higgins’s lawyer, Leon Zwier, in March and April, requesting a copy of the trust deed, but a copy was not provided.
Senator Reynolds has asked the National Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate the circumstances behind the compensation payment to Ms Higgins, after she was excluded from participating in a mediation conference that had preceded the settlement payout.
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