It is the battle between a businessman who lost a billion-dollar birthright and his family, who didn't.
Perth businessman Julian Wright has issued extraordinary court proceedings accusing his sister, Perth billionaire Angela Bennett, and his deceased brother, Michael Wright, of engaging in fraud to cheat him out of his share of one of Australia's most famous iron ore fortunes.
Julian Wright, 68, has long been a figure of intrigue and mirth in mining circles due to his 1987 decision to sell for $6.8 million his one-third stake in the family business founded by his father, Peter.
Peter Wright and his partner Lang Hancock unlocked the iron ore wealth of the Pilbara in the 1950s, striking deals with Rio Tinto that have generated hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties for the Wright family and Gina Rinehart.
Fairfax Media can reveal that Mr Wright, who has spent years gathering evidence for a case lodged late on Friday, alleges that his brother and sister "fraudulently misrepresented" the future value of the company his father founded.
Ms Bennett has returned fire, with a spokesman releasing a statement to Fairfax Media accusing Mr Wright of a baseless "attempt to manufacture allegations of improper conduct" to force his sister to the negotiating table.
"Given the spurious nature of the allegations Julian is making, which call into question the integrity of Angela and her late brother, we will be seeking nothing short of either a final judgement knocking out the claims or Julian withdrawing and paying costs," the spokesman said.
Peter Wright and Lang Hancock in 1967.
Julian Wright is alleging that "false information" was provided to him in the twelve months before he sold his one-third stake in Wright Prospecting, a company he estimates is now worth several billion dollars.
The case of betrayal Julian Wright has outlined in court files against Ms Bennett, whose estimated $1.61 billion fortune placed her 27th on the latest BRW rich list, and his brother Michael, who died in 2012 worth an estimated $1.2 billion, plunges a family with a penchant for privacy into the headlines.
Ms Bennett, Michael Wright's estate and Michael's two children, Leonie Baldock and Alexandra Burt (who runs the high-profile winery Voyager Estate and who with Ms Baldock inherited more than $800 million when their father died) are also named in the incendiary writ. Ms Baldock and Ms Burt are worth an estimated $1.55 billion.
The claims and counter claims that have erupted after the filing of Julian Wright's writ – which may be among Australia's largest common law fraud cases – has echoes of the bitter battle between Gina Rinehart and her children, Bianca Rinehart and John Hancock, which captivated the nation and continues to grind through the courts.
Julian Wright's barrister is Alan Camp, who worked with the Rinehart family for decades and has assisted Bianca and John in their separate battle with Gina Rinehart.
In court documents, Julian Wright alleges that he was victim of a deception when he agreed to pocket $6.8 million in January 1987 in return for handing over to his two siblings his one-third share of Wright Prospecting Pty Ltd (WPPL), the firm his father founded alongside Hancock Prospecting.
Mr Wright alleges that he was labouring under his siblings' "misrepresentations" that WPPL's iron ore deposits in the Pilbara were of minimal value.
"In reliance upon the misrepresentations … the plaintiff [Julian Wright] sold his shares and interest in the estate … for significantly under their true value," the writ states.
Underpinning Mr Wright's case are allegations that his brother Michael learned of the true value of WPPL's iron ore holdings during a tour of the Pilbara by a veteran geologist, whose evidence is likely to be critical to the case's prospect of success.
The geologist is understood to have provided a statement to Mr Wright's legal team alleging that he told Michael Wright about the significant value of WPPL's interests in deposits at Jimblebar, Marandoo, Rhodes Ridge, Hope Downs and around Mount Tom Price, with royalties that could flow for a century.
This information was allegedly confidentially relayed by Michael Wright to his sister Angela Bennett during an iron ore committee meeting from which Julian Wright alleges he was "excluded."
Julian Wright also alleges he was presented with "false" information in 1985 and 1986 by his sibling's accountant, Douglas Salt, and that he was never told of important negotiations between his brother, sister and Lang Hancock.
But a spokesman for Ms Bennett said that Mr Wright's "spurious" claims conflicted with a deal Julian Wright struck in 2008 to forgo making any future claims against his siblings. In return, Mr Wright's children received an estimated $50 million payment to settle a dispute over the will left by the Wright family patriarch, Peter.
When Julian Wright walked away from the family company in January 1987, the iron ore price was below $20 a tonne and the Chinese demand for iron ore was years away. The the iron ore price rose to around $190 a tonne in 2011 and is now trading at around $90.
Julian Wright forged his own business career after severing ties with his siblings, buying a Margaret River winery and partnering in a Perth financial advisory firm.
Mr Wright is seeking to convince a West Australian Supreme Court judge to return to him a large share in WPPL, a firm Mr Wright's advisers estimate is worth between $3 to $5 billion.
He also wants to be compensated for losing out on hundreds of millions of dollars of royalties that have flowed from the deals struck by WPPL, and to be paid $20 million for deals involving the sale of the Marandoo and Jimblebar mines.
Photo: Philip Gostelow
Bitter court battles are now part of the Wright family tradition. In 2015, Julian Wright's niece Olivia Mead, above, was paid a record $25 million after she launched legal action against her half-sisters, Ms Burt and Ms Baldock, seeking a share of the estate of the trio's father, Michael Wright. The case was heavily scrutinised by the media, with Ms Mead portrayed as Michael Wright's secret 'love-child' heir.
Fifteen years earlier, Angela and Michael Wright sued Gina Rinehart over a 25 per cent contested holding in the Rhodes Ridge iron ore deposit.
