Woman accused of killing mum spent $155K on crypto in a year
The Crown says murder-accused Julia DeLuney used money from her mother to pay off credit card debt and invest further in crypto-currency.
DeLuney is on trial for the murder of her 79-year-old mother, Helen Gregory, who died at her home in the Wellington suburb of Khandallah in January last year, a crime which she denies.
Two days before her mother's death, DeLuney sent her an email saying a sum of money she had invested six months ago on her mother's behalf had made a large profit - more than $268,000 - and she recommended they cash out.
She said in order to do that, she needed $30,000 for withdrawal fees and tax liability, and asked her mother to cover half.
The court heard on Monday from a cryptocurrency expert those fees were "totally false", and a common scam.
The court also heard DeLuney used a screenshot of someone else's crypto account to show her mother a graph of her profits.
But her mother set about finding $15,000. She had $6000 in cash, which the Crown heard from a bank teller she deposited into her daughters account on 23 January.
Then, the court was played a phone call between Gregory and her bank in which she withdrew more from her Kiwisaver, sending a further $9000 to DeLuney's bank account.
Those payments appear on DeLuney's statement with the reference: JULIAFROMMUM.
Then, her bank statements show she used that money to pay off credit card debt, buy a Lotto ticket, make payments to SkyTV, Afterpay and Mitre10, and invested about $2000 in crypto-currency.
Financial analyst Eric Huang told the court his analysis of DeLuney's financial records, excluding cash deposits, showed she had spent more than she earned in the year before her mother's death, the High Court heard on Tuesday.
Huang told the court records showed between 1 January, 2023 and 25 January, 2024 - the day after her mother's death - she spent more than $155,000 on crypto-currency investments.
That totalled 47 percent of her income.
Huang said in that same period, she received more than $92,000 from friends and family, primarily her mother and father.
Her earnings from crypto currency, at least the ones which passed through her bank accounts, were outweighed by her investments; by January 2024, she was $68,000 in the red.
Huang said his analysis had shown she spent a "significant amount" on Afterpay purchases, totalling $39,000, on travel and accommodation, totalling $5736, and on personal beauty services like hair and nails, totalling $4339.
She did not meet her minimum repayments on her credit card three months out of 12.
The Crown said DeLuney attacked her mother before staging it to look like she had fallen from the attic, a crime which was potentially financially motivated.
But the defence claims someone else caused those injuries in the 90 minutes in which she had gone to get help.
The trial is expected to continue into next week.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
NZ Herald
4 hours ago
- NZ Herald
KiwiSaver hardship reveals hidden cost of this economic downturn
We had news last week that KiwiSaver members withdrew more than $470 million for hardship reasons in the past 12 months amid continuing economic stress. Inland Revenue figures showed $470.7m was taken out of KiwiSaver in the June financial year, up 56.6% from $300.5m over the prior period. Looking back through the figures, there has certainly been a big spike in withdrawals in the past two years, but they have been on the rise for several years. Since Covid, both the number of people withdrawing funds and the amount withdrawn have risen steadily. As a barometer of the general economic situation, that isn't great. But the bigger problem with these hardship withdrawals is that the ultimate cost is (quite literally) compounded through the years. More than $1.3 billion of KiwiSaver funds has been withdrawn for hardship reasons in the past five years. If we do some back-of-the-envelope calculations and assume this money could have earned around 7% returns for the next 20 years, then we get a figure of more than $5b that will be missing from the nation's pool of retirement funds by 2045. Given the current trend of withdrawals, I suspect this is a conservative estimate. I understand why we allow withdrawals for hardship. It doesn't make sense for people to lose their homes or to go hungry when they have thousands of dollars sitting in a KiwiSaver account, so I'm not advocating that we stop allowing the withdrawals. However, there is a hidden cost and the situation highlights just how crucial it is for the Government to put more focus on retirement savings. There is a lot more money coming out of the KiwiSaver scheme to fund people into their first homes. Since Covid hit, an average of about $1.2b a year has been withdrawn from KiwiSaver for first home purchases. A home is an asset at least, and home ownership is an important step on the path to financial independence. I suspect we just have to accept the first home buyer withdrawals as a feature of the KiwiSaver scheme. If young people are in the scheme from the start of their working life and have $10,000 or $20,000 to put towards a house deposit, they are probably ahead of where many in my generation were at the same age. But the reality is that as a nation, we're well behind on where we need to be with our retirement savings. According to Stats NZ projections, the percentage of the population aged 65+ will increase from roughly 16-17% in the early 2020s to about 19-20% by 2030. By 2050, around 24-26% of New Zealanders are expected to be 65+. The old-age dependency ratio (ratio of elderly to working-age population) is expected to nearly double between 2020 and 2050. Our annual superannuation bill already comes in at more than $20b, and Treasury has projected that to rise to about $45b by 2037. According to Budget 2025 data, New Zealand Superannuation costs $4352 per person per year, making it the third-largest area of government spending after welfare ($6181 per person) and health ($5804 per person). From the Treasury's long-term fiscal projections, spending on NZ Super is projected to grow from 4.3% of GDP in 2010 to 7.9% in 2060, an increase of 3.6 percentage points. It is also rising as a percentage of the Government's total tax revenue – from about 17% now, it is projected to rise above 21% by 2037. So we know we have a problem. It seems almost certain that the age of superannuation will have to be raised to 67 in the coming years – despite the current opposition of NZ First and Labour. Future governments will almost certainly come under more pressure to means-test. KiwiSaver, which currently has total funds of $122b, is one of our great hopes. But the total figure is flattering. There are more than three million KiwiSaver members so the average fund size is just $37,000. Hopefully, that will be skewed by a lot of young people who will see their savings grow dramatically in the next decades. That brings us back to the downside of withdrawing funds early for hardship, though. We need to be saving more, not less. Moves by the Government to lift the default contribution rate for both employees and employers to 4% from April 2028 were a step in the right direction. However, they pale in comparison to Australia's compulsory scheme, which requires 12% employer contributions. The scheme has the equivalent of $4.5 trillion invested, making Australia the fifth-largest holder of pension fund assets in the world, not per capita but in nominal terms. Australia, for the record, also allows people to withdraw funds for hardship, but one suspects fewer people there need to. If we want to make the most of the KiwiSaver scheme we have, we need to look more closely at who is withdrawing their money and why. Meanwhile, young Kiwis are voting with their feet and joining the Australian Superannuation scheme ... by virtue of moving to work there. Liam Dann is business editor-at-large for the New Zealand Herald. He is a senior writer and columnist, and also presents and produces videos and podcasts. He joined the Herald in 2003.
NZ Herald
13 hours ago
- NZ Herald
Lotto Powerball jackpot hits $10m, $11.4m prize pool up for grabs
A combined prize pool of $11.4 million was up for grabs in tonight's draw. Time running out for mystery winner The mystery winner of a $200,000 Lotto prize has only six weeks left to claim their money before the ticket expires and is no longer available. Earlier this week, Lotto put out a final call for the owner of a ticket purchased at Coastlands Lotto in Paraparaumu on the Kāpiti Coast nearly a year ago to come forward. The draw was held on August 31, 2024, and expires 12 months from that date, giving the winner until the end of August this year to claim the money. 'We're still hopeful that the player will come forward and we can reunite them with their prize in time, but the ticket expiry date is looming,' Lotto's Will Hine said. Hine said the ticket, a Triple Dip, was purchased during a Father's Day promotion and could have been given away as a gift. 'Maybe that rings a bell for someone who got given a ticket, gave away a ticket, or even just bought themselves a Triple Dip about that time last year,' Hine said. What to do if you win Ticket holders can see immediately if they have won if they purchased a ticket through MyLotto. Prizes of $1000 or less are automatically credited to the account. For prizes of more than $1000, winners have to fill in an online prize form. Winners with a physical ticket must still visit a Lotto retailer to claim their prize. For the Powerball jackpot to be claimed, a ticket holder must get all six Lotto numbers correct as well as the added Powerball number. Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Otago Daily Times
19 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
Bible verses, crypto trades and grief: Inside Deluny's diaries
By Kate Green of RNZ Julia DeLuney's diaries, presented as evidence by the Crown during her month-long trial, reveal the highs and lows of cryptocurrency trading, her plans for a Remuera home to retire in, and her grief following the death of her mother. DeLuney was found guilty of murdering Helen Gregory, 79, at the elderly woman's home in Baroda St in Khandallah in January last year. The Crown argued it had been a financially motivated attack, and that DeLuney had been receiving money - or at worst, stealing it - from her mother for at least a year before the murder. Over the course of the trial, her diaries were presented as evidence of her emotional state and financial struggles. They contained little reminders and checklists: "car service, pay credit card $10,000, hair tidy up". But that sat alongside Bible passages, musings about her future, and some existential questions. DeLuney had been a teacher until about 15 years ago. In recent years she had turned her hand to trading cryptocurrency. The court saw photographs of the diary pages, with typed transcriptions alongside. Some entries contained references to FET, WOO, DXY, buying on red days, selling on green days, FOMO of "green candles" (good trades) and speculation about when the US regulating body would approve the first Bitcoin ETF. In early December, she wrote: "Bitcoin hit, $40,000, waiting for FET to break through." Some entries contained Bible passages: "Give back what the locusts have taken away, God, double what he had before! I, Julia, stand for the word of the Lord." The Crown pointed to other entries as a sign she had been struggling mentally - like this one in mid-December: "I need to remember how tough and discouraging these past five-six years have been waiting for such a time as this." As December passed, her diaries begin to reveal a desire to cash out and step back. December 16, 2023: "Having a healthy pullback today after a big green week.... Yes, I'm desperately impatient to resume my life after six years of staring at charts. It's been a terribly traumatic and challenging period of my life. I need to leave this crypto world behind me soon. Please dear lord." And on the last day of the year, there was a glimpse into her dreams for the future. December 31, 2023: "100x from here and we're out of here! New life begins! Remuera goal for 2024, 10m. Generational family home, pool [...], great kitchen, bathrooms, 4+ bedrooms, beautiful tropical garden." The diaries showed how turbulent cryptocurrency trading could be. One early January day, DeLuney wrote the markets were "waking up" - and the next, "Market crashed. Liquidations everywhere." DeLuney's bank records showed between January 2023 and January 2024, she spent more than $155,000 on crypto-currency investments. Cryptocurrency consultant Nicolas Turnbull gave evidence to help the jury understand some of the jargon, but he said there seemed to be "no real structure" to DeLuney's trading. "There's a lot of emotion in it, where if you're trading, and you're doing this as a job ... in my professional opinion you need structure, you need risk management." And as January wore on, the diaries revealed DeLuney's increasing disillusionment with trading. On January 10, she wrote: "It's been an awful year so far, I'm done. Been trying so hard to crack this but as soon as I think it's in my reach, it gets taken away - again and again. I can't keep doing this, I just want a f***ng home and some financial security in old age. It's obviously not happening. F*** life!" On January 24, DeLuney visited her mother to book tickets to the ballet. Her diary entries that day - likely written before she visited her mother that evening - were Bible passages. "This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118.24 And: "For I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4.13 Crown prosecutor Stephanie Bishop told the jury in her closing argument they may never know the details of that evening, but "something happened, something changed" - that led to DeLuney violently assaulting her mother. The next entry was on January 26, 2024 - two days after her mother's death: Alongside a to-do list of funeral arrangements, she quoted Romans 8.28: "For all things work together for good to those who love him and that are called according to his purposes" and Matthew 6.33: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all those things shall be added unto you." The funeral took place on February 3 - a "beautiful service". "I'm going to miss you forever my one and only darling, beautiful mum, be at rest and in peace with your Lord and savior Jesus Christ," DeLuney wrote. The court saw diary entries up until February 8: "Dear God, I love and miss mum sooo much, please take care of her. Thank you for blessing me with such a loving, kind and wise mum." The jury took only a day to deliberate, returning their guilty verdict on Wednesday, just before 5pm. DeLuney was remanded in custody, to be sentenced in September.
