The former partner of Sir Ngatata Love, Lorraine Skiffington, benefited from payments meant for the Wellington Tenths Trust iwi organisation, a court has been told.
The trust has today asked the High Court in Wellington to freeze some of her property pending the hearing of a claim against her.
Last October, Love was jailed for 2 years and 6 months, after being found guilty of obtaining property by deception.
Ms Skiffington was also charged with fraud, but the case did not proceed because she is terminally ill.
The Tenths Trust's lawyer, Callum Reid, said the basis of his client's claim was that Ms Skiffington knowingly assisted Love to breach his obligations to the trust.
He said property developers entered into agreements with one of her companies and thought they were dealing with the Tenths Trust.
"The ... agreements were a sham to enable Ngatata Love and Lorraine Skiffington to personally benefit by in excess of $3m.
"To the extent that any work was done by her under either agreement, it was to a much lesser value than that claimed.
Mr Reid said since late November last year the Tenths Trust had tried unsuccessfully to reach a settlement with Ms Skiffington.
Ms Skiffington's lawyer, Jonathan Temm, said there were some core legal principles which had to be met in a case such as that taken by the Tenths Trust, including that it have a good, arguable case, which he said it did not.
He said it also had to be shown that if the freezing order was not granted, there was a risk of the property claimed being disposed of, but that was not the case in this proceeding.
He pointed to a passage in Justice Lang's sentencing remarks where the Judge said it was not known how much influence Ms Skiffington had over Love because she did not give evidence at the trial.
"That fairly explains it. She may have had some influence but the court doesn't know."
"Again [Justice Lang] says, 'what you cannot escape Dr Love is that Lorraine Skiffington was not a trustee. She did not deal with your fellow trustees
"You were the person who placed it before them and you had that obligation'."
Mr Temm said the Tenths Trust was claiming redress from Ms Skiffington personally, but it was her company, Strategic Directions Limited, which was involved in the consultancy work done with the developers.
Justice Clark reserved her judgment.
The hearing of the Tenths Trust's civil claim against Ms Skiffington will take place next week.
