{"id":350946,"date":"2025-12-16T04:13:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T04:13:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/350946\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T04:13:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T04:13:10","slug":"david-sharaz-declared-bankrupt-in-federal-court-hearing-prompted-by-linda-reynolds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/350946\/","title":{"rendered":"David Sharaz declared bankrupt in federal court hearing prompted by Linda Reynolds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brittany Higgins’s husband David Sharaz has been declared bankrupt\u00a0in the Federal Court in Perth, two months after former Senator Linda Reynolds served him bankruptcy papers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It comes after Ms Higgins was declared bankrupt in a hearing brought on by Ms Reynolds in Perth last Friday, with Federal Court Justice Michael Feutrill ruling her estate must be sequestrated under the bankruptcy act.<\/p>\n

In August, Ms Higgins and Mr Sharaz were found to have defamed the former WA MP<\/a> in a series of social media posts.<\/p>\n

Ms Higgins was ordered to pay Ms Reynolds $315,000 plus $26,000 in interest.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Mr Sharaz and Brittany Higgins were found to have defamed Ms Reynolds in a series of social media posts. (Instagram: David Sharaz)<\/p>\n

Mr Sharaz, who opted not to defend the legal action, was ordered to pay $85,000, with Justice Tottle ruling both he and Ms Higgins were jointly liable for Ms Reynolds’ legal bill, which had exceeded one million dollars.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the Federal Court heard Mr Sharaz was personally served the bankruptcy notice at a Melbourne cafe on October 10.<\/p>\n

Linda Reynolds attacks government<\/a><\/p>\n

Former defence minister Linda Reynolds says Coalition colleagues failed her and she will not stop fighting to clear her name against “lies”, no matter the cost.<\/p>\n

“I am satisfied the debtor committed [the] act of bankruptcy,” Registrar Camille Goucke said.<\/p>\n

The Registrar ordered Mr Sharaz’s estate to be sequestrated under the bankruptcy act and costs of $5,690 to be paid.<\/p>\n

The act of bankruptcy was deemed to be October 31.<\/p>\n

The hearing last Friday also ordered Ms Higgins’s estate to pay Ms Reynolds costs of $6,330.<\/p>\n

Lengthy saga<\/p>\n

The defamation action was launched by Ms Reynolds following social media posts made by Ms Higgins beginning in 2022.<\/p>\n

\"Linda<\/p>\n

Ms Reynolds (centre, blue coat) initiated the bankruptcy proceedings after winning the high-profile defamation case in August. (ABC News: Glyn Jones)<\/p>\n

Ms Reynolds argued the posts trashed her reputation and caused her immense distress, following a period of ill health.<\/p>\n

Ms Higgins wrote the posts four years after she was raped in the then-senator’s office by her colleague Bruce Lehrmann.<\/p>\n

\"Three<\/p>\n

Some of the social media posts made by Ms Higgins which Ms Reynolds took action over. (Supplied: WA Supreme Court)<\/p>\n

The finding of rape was made last year by Justice Michael Lee during a separate defamation action Mr Lehrmann had launched in the Federal Court against Channel 10 and journalist Lisa Wilkinson.<\/p>\n

That finding was made on the balance of probabilities, the standard of proof in a civil court matter.<\/p>\n

Separate criminal proceedings against Mr Lehrmann, which require a charge to be proved beyond reasonable doubt, were discontinued after juror misconduct and concerns for Ms Higgins’s welfare.<\/p>\n

Mr Lehrmann has always denied raping Ms Higgins.<\/p>\n

LoadingLoading<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brittany Higgins’s husband David Sharaz has been declared bankrupt\u00a0in the Federal Court in Perth, two months after former…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,61971,72656,72654,72655,72651,72652,72653,72650,55416,61973,44,9801,86,45,72657],"class_list":{"0":"post-350946","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-brittany-higgins","11":"tag-brittany-higgins-france","12":"tag-brittany-higgins-trial","13":"tag-bruce-lehrmann-appeal","14":"tag-bruce-lerhrmann","15":"tag-david-sharaz","16":"tag-defamation-trial","17":"tag-linda-reynolds","18":"tag-lisa-wilkinson","19":"tag-michael-lee","20":"tag-news","21":"tag-parliament","22":"tag-perth-news","23":"tag-wa-news","24":"tag-wa-supreme-court"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}