Terri in $2.5m lawsuits
December 16, 2007 12:00am

TERRI Irwin and Australia Zoo have been named in lawsuits totalling more than $2.5 million that allege mysterious business transactions.

Mrs Irwin says she has no knowledge of the lawsuits or the alleged transactions which triggered them.

Her manager John Stainton said he had "no bloody idea" about the lawsuits.

A firm called Alyssa Treasury Services Ltd lodged a writ in Melbourne on November 22 demanding $2.5 million from the Australia Zoo and the Steve Irwin Family Trust, a year after Crocodile Hunter star Steve Irwin died.

Lawyers for the firm – who list their address only as a Melbourne post office box – lodged another writ on December 7 seeking $60,000 from Terri Irwin personally.

The legal actions involve an intricate web of companies and the writs against Mrs Irwin and the Australia Zoo refer to two contracts allegedly signed on their behalf promising to pay money to other firms.

The documents are dated March 30 and August 15 this year – well after Steve Irwin was fatally wounded by a stingray in September 2006.

The four firms mentioned on the court documents are Australasian Custodians Ltd, Providential Trustees Ltd, Avowal Administrative Attorneys Ltd and HQZ Argentum Ltd.

Australasian Custodians Ltd is owned by a group based in Labuan, an island tax haven off the coast of Borneo.

Providential Trustees Ltd was struck off the New Zealand register on October 12, 2007