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An Italian socialite whose princess sister and filmstar mother secretly conspired to cut her share of the family's riches will be handed a further $30million - in addition to $100million already ordered to be put back in a trust for her by Jersey's Royal Court.
Following around half a decade of hearings and a trial of almost three months, the Court last year found in favour of Cristiana Crociani, the estranged sister of Princess Camilla Bourbon de Deux Siciles and the daughter of 60s actress Madame Edoarda Crociani.
She had brought legal claims against her family members after discovering that they had secretly conspired against her to redirect family wealth including paintings and company assets in a trust worth $200million in favour of the princess.
The issue, the Court heard, was that Cristiana was apparently the less favoured of the granddame Edoarda's two children, as she had not married into high society or royalty like her sister. As such, she became estranged from her family, leading her mother and sister to try to cut her share of the family's wealth. But Cristiana said she found out about the secret plot after a voice recording of a covert meeting involving her mother and sister was leaked to her.
Pictured: Advocate Edward Drummond, a Partner at Bedell Cristin, who worked on the case.
Neither Madame Crociani or Princess Camilla attended Court in Jersey to give evidence during the proceedings.
The Court subsequently ordered in September that the Bahamian trust – known as the Grand Trust – be reconstituted to its original state. The defaulting trustees, which included BNP Paribas, were ordered to place $100million back into the Grand Trust, for which Cristiana's two daughters are also beneficiaries.
An investigation was then initiated to establish whether any further losses had been incurred to Cristiana as a result of the conspiracy. Last month, following hearings involving live evidence from factual and expert witnesses shortly before Easter, the Court decided that there had been - and they totalled around $33million in total.
They found that, had the $100million portfolio remained untouched, it would have ended up increasing in value. The trustees tried to argue that the returns would have only totalled $7million - or even as low as $2million. However, the Court instead decided that, had the trust not been interfered with and managed prudently over a six-year period, that figure would have been more than four times the trustees' suggestion.
Pictured: The original case, as reported in Connect Magazine.
"We are delighted that the Royal Court has found in our clients' favour on these matters, having rejected the arguments put forward by the defaulting trustees," commented Bedell Cristin's Advocate Edward Drummond, who was supported by Eason Rajah QC and James Poole of Ten Old Square.
Despite the latest victory for Cristiana, the contentious case continues. More hearings are scheduled to be heard in the Royal Court in July.
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