Tragic rock star’s millions sent offshore
MICHAEL Hutchence’s business manager shifted the rock star’s millions into an offshore account to cash in on the 20th anniversary of the singer’s death, it was claimed last night.
The Paradise Papers show Colin Diamond set up a company called Helipad Plain in 2015 in the tax haven of Mauritius in order to benefit from the INXS frontman’s unreleased songs. Hutchence’s mother Patricia Glassop, father Kel and sister Tina fought through the Australian courts for eight years only to be told by the executor that Hutchence owned virtually nothing.
It is believed Diamond’s company has sole rights to ‘sound recordings, images, films, and related material embodying the performance of Michael Hutchence’.
The question of what happened to Hutchence’s estate – said to be worth as much as £15million – has long been a mystery of the rock world. His death in Sydney in 1997 sparked a bitter war over who should inherit his riches.
In fact, the 2005 court case revealed Hutchence’s assets were being kept in a complex web of offshore trusts set up in tax havens and run by Diamond and others.
Diamond maintained Hutchence had never wanted his relatives to inherit the fortune.
But this clashed with the star’s will, which said he left half his estate to the daughter he had with Paula Yates, Tiger Lily, who was adopted by Bob Geldof when she was four.
In July, The Sun newspaper reported Tiger Lily, who is now 21, would inherit Hutchence’s millions, however the Paradise Papers suggest this might not be the case.
There are rumours Geldof has reached a settlement with Diamond over Tiger Lily’s estate, however no details of any agreement have been made public.