Andrew L. Urban
The Federal Police are investigating David Sharaz and the Trustee in Bankruptcy is investigating his wife Brittany Higgins. Sharaz in connection with his Get Up stunt interrupting Pauline Hanson’s National Press Club address on May 17, Higgins in connection with some $1 million missing from the Protective Trust which was set up to handle the government’s compensation payout of $2.4 million.
Higgins was declared bankrupt in December last year after failing to pay any of the more than $1m damages and costs she owes to former Liberal minister Linda Reynolds, who won a defamation case against her former staffer (over the Bruce Lehrmann rape allegations). The Trustee found that large sums were transferred overseas and to related parties, including her husband David Sharaz and others who have not been identified.
Reynolds told The Australian she was shocked that the Trustee in bankruptcy had found that complete records for the large amounts transferred had not been produced, despite a legal obligation to do so. But not too surprised …
“I was not surprised when Ms Higgins, Mr Sharaz and her financial and legal representatives failed to account for nearly half of the $2.4m she received from the Labor government, never mind from the other significant income streams received from their various employments, sponsorships and book deal,” Reynolds said.
Before buying their house in the French countryside in September 2023 to start “a fresh life”, Higgins and Sharaz embarked on a series of holidays in the Maldives, Geneva, London and Paris. The couple were married in 2024 at the luxury Gold Coast venue The Valley Estate, the bride wearing a Paolo Sebastian gown which retails for $30,000.
“Given the lavish lifestyle they enjoy, it is impossible to reconcile their claim that they are broke and have no money to pay even a cent to me in compliance with the orders of the WA Supreme Court,” Reynolds said.
Isn’t it heartwarming to see Higgins happily married, with a child, bankrupt but gainfully employed (Executive Director, Vida Fund) after seemingly close to death following the aborted rape trial, so ill a retrial couldn’t be contemplated and her future so dark she was generously compensated by the government … conpensation as medicine?