$17m Lotto winner alleges woman spent $2.8m on properties for herself

Two years after profitable $17 million in Lotto, Mark Lipsham met a brand new lady.

Inside eight weeks he had given her practically $3m of his winnings – cash he says was to purchase properties for him. As a substitute, Kim Helmbright spent it on two properties for herself.

Lipsham claims he engaged Helmbright in October 2019 to offer him with a spread of providers – monetary, property, private and religious.

He paid her about $70,000 over two months for these providers. Then on December 2, 2019, gave her $2.8m, which he believed was wanted by her to settle property purchases in his title.

However as a substitute, she used the cash to purchase actual property in her title – a property at Waipapa close to Kerikeri, for $1,675,000 in January 2020, and a property at Okaihau, close to Kaikohe, which she paid $660,000 in March 2020.

The couple’s relationship resulted in Could 2020, and now the spat has ended up within the civil court docket.

Helmbright claims the pair had a proper Freelancing Settlement for the providers she offered him and all the cash he gave her was cost for these. She might do with that cash no matter she wished.

Lipsham accepts signing the settlement however says he did so after paying the $2.8million – not on the date written on the doc – October 4, 2019. He claimed Helmbright backdated it.

Lipsham mentioned if he had entered into the settlement on the date purported (which he denied) then it might have been both an “unconscionable cut price” for Helmbright; because of her having an undue affect over him; rejected by her and subsequently cancelled by him; or mistakenly entered into by him.

The important thing points for the court docket to determine at trial will likely be whether or not the cost was made to Helmbright for the aim of shopping for properties in Lipsham’s title or pursuant to the so-called Freelancing Settlement, how Helmbright utilized the cost and whether or not it may very well be traced to her belongings.

The case is in its early levels however, in a not too long ago launched determination, Affiliate Choose Dani Lee Gardiner granted Lipsham’s software for Helmbright to supply a spread of paperwork: info regarding the negotiation of the Freelancing Settlement; GST returns and earnings tax info; sale and buy agreements and different info associated to the properties bought by Helmbright; financial institution statements; and details about the providers she alleged to offer.

Lipsham believed the paperwork would show what the $2.8million cost was for.

Helmbright objected to offering most of them, claiming she misplaced some when she threw out her laptop computer in February 2020, that some have been along with her former legal professionals, and that others have been confidential or privileged info.

Choose Gardiner rejected these causes and ordered Helmbright to offer Lipsham with all the data as requested, excluding financial institution statements. The decide agreed that these ought to solely be seen by Lipsham’s counsel for privateness causes.