There is over twenty million euros at stake with the Maiolini family, living in Italy and the Emirates, claiming professional advisers have duped them, with family losing access to music royalty payments. The High Court put receivers in control of disputed assets until ownership is resolved, with a legal chase to follow through the intricacies of trust law and international tax arbitrage.
It is alleged professional advisers in the Netherlands, Canada and Australia have milked trust assets for their own benefit, refusing to return control to the Maiolini family.
Giacomo Maiolini is the founder of Time Records and driving force behind Best Records and Riga Music. In the 1990s, he took advice on international asset structures from Dutch national, Erwin de Ruiter.
The High Court in New Zealand was told details of Maiolini family asset holdings being frequently restructured over the following two decades.
In 2005, an offshore trust was set up in Caribbean tax haven, Nevis: the Riga Settlement Trust.
Mr de Ruiter controlled this Trust. Royalties were diverted to the Trust. Mr Maiolini’s signature was needed to operate the Trust’s Luxembourg bank account.
For those versed in the intricacies of international tax law, it is not surprising that no mention was made in Riga Trust documentation of Maiolini family members as settlor, trustee or beneficiaries.
The only named beneficiary was a childrens hospital in Brescia, Italy.
The trust deed did allow for later addition of further beneficiaries.
Complications arose after tax authorities in various jurisdictions around the world cracked down on use of tax havens.
By 2010, Nevis was included on a blacklist of non-co-operative jurisdictions. Mr de Ruiter recommended trust domicile be shifted to New Zealand.
Assets were then transferred to a new trust established in New Zealand: Riga Settlement (NZ).
The Riga Settlement (NZ) trust deed made no mention of a childrens hospital in Brescia; in fact, there is no named beneficiary in the trust deed.
Mr Maiolini continued to control payments out of the new Trust’s Luxembourg bank account.
Further complications arose with Mr de Ruiter’s 2018 conviction and three years’ imprisonment in the Netherlands for tax fraud.
To distance the New Zealand trust from Mr de Ruiter when he was under investigation in the Netherlands, trust assets were again re-settled in 2015, with creation of a further new trust: Quinoa Settlement. Architect of this further re-settlement was an associate of Mr de Ruiter, Canadian businessman, Earl Campbell.
Trust assets came to be controlled variously by Mr Campbell and Australian chartered accountant, Kieran Brush, acting through a corporate trustee: Quinoa Trustees Ltd.
The Maiolini family claim that when the Luxembourg bank unilaterally closed the Quinoa Settlement’s bank account in 2019, trust money came to be dispersed into bank accounts in Canada, Dubai, Monaco and also into client accounts with Morgan Stanley and Bank Edmond de Rothschild.
Mr Maiolini claims in the New Zealand High Court that the trio of Mr de Ruiter, Mr Campbell and Mr Brush are diverting trust assets to their own benefit.
Using Trust Act powers, Justice Blanchard put the disputed assets under control of receivers based in New Zealand, until ownership is resolved.
The High Court was told Maiolini family want the 2015 Quinoa Settlement declared null and void.
If successful, this will see trust assets reverting to the prior trust: Riga Settlement (NZ).
This could result in assets then reverting to the Maiolini family. They claim there is a written ‘statement of wishes’ on record identifying them as ‘hidden’ beneficiaries of the Riga Settlement (NZ) trust.
Maiolini v. Fidelis (New Zealand) Ltd – High Court (4.07.25)
25.152