brothers fight over $500 million property empire
Two brothers are at war over one of Victoria's biggest real estate empires , worth more than $500 million, four decades after their Italian family founded the dynasty. Former Carlton Football Club director and developer Colin De Lutis lives in a Toorak mansion three doors from younger brother Paul , who has taken him to the Supreme Court over how their property and business assets will be sliced up. Colin and Paul De Lutis are battling each other in the Supreme Court . Photo: Supplied Paul has wanted out of the family business since 2014 but an acrimonious argument is playing out in the Supreme Court over the break-up. Together with their mother Anna the brothers own 38 properties worth more than half a billion dollars, amassed since the family bought a Smith Street, Collingwood, shop in 1973. There, the family founded Westco Jeans and grew it into a chain of 160 retail outlets. It sold in 1999 for $85 million. That money was sunk into property and the De Lutis portfolio ...