Geomancer loses in battle of the wills
By Olivia Chung
HONG KONG - Hong Kong's High Court on Tuesday rejected a feng shui master's
claim for the estimated US$4.2 billion fortune of late property tycoon Nina
Wang Kung Yu-sum after a court case featuring a heady mix of sex, secrets and
geomancy.
Mr Justice Johnson Lam Man-hon said a 2006 will in the possession of Tony Chan
Chun-chuen was a fake, and upheld a 2002 will giving the estate to a charity
run by Wang's family.
Wang, Asia's richest woman at the time of her death, succumbed to cancer in
April of 2007. Her death triggering a battle for her fortune between Chan and
the Chinachem Charitable Foundation, which is associated with Chinachem Group,
the Hong Kong-based property giant that Wang ran until she died. Chan, 50, a
former bartender, was the tycoon's richly remunerated feng shui advisor
- and her secret lover.
"I do not find [Chan] to be a credible witness and I find in many respects his
evidence was tailored to suit his convenience," the judge wrote in his ruling
on the case, popularly known as the "Battle of the Wills", that has gripped the
city.
Dubbed "Little Sweetie" because of the pigtails and girlish clothes that became
her trademark, Wang's worth at the time of her death was estimated at $4.2
billion by Forbes. Some media reports claimed her fortune, amassed initially by
her husband and Chinachem founder Teddy Wang Tei-huei, was as high as $13
billion, while documents released by the court did not put a figure on the size
of the estate.
This is not the first courtroom drama involving Wang and her fortune to have
captivated Hong Kong. The She fought a bitter battle with her father-in-law to
win control of her late husband's estate in 2005. Teddy was kidnapped in 1990
and never seen alive again, despite the payment of a multi-million-dollar
ransom.
The probate case dominated Hong Kong's media for weeks after it first opened in
May 2009, with the court hearing from 36 witnesses.
Chinachem's lawyers argued that Chan duped a dying, mentally unstable woman
with promises of eternal life. At the very least, they say the 2006 will
leaving her fortune to him was a ritualistic prop meant to be burnt, like paper
money as part of a traditional life-extending ceremony.
Lam acknowledged that Chan and Wang had been lovers, but rejected his claim
that she wanted him to take control of her empire.
"Even though Nina had a secret liaison with [Chan], I do not believe that their
relationship was such that she was prepared to give him her entire estate
irrespective of her other commitments and responsibilities," the judge wrote.
"I do not believe Nina would give him the steer or chairmanship of the
Chinachem business empire built up by the joint efforts of Nina and Teddy
[Nina's late husband] bearing in mind that he had not proved himself to be a
man of good business acumen capable of leading such empire," he wrote.
Jonathan Midgley, Chan's lawyer, said Chan was "extremely disappointed" and
would appeal the judgment. "[Chan's] position today is the same as it has
always been, namely that the will in question was given to him by Nina Wang and
accordingly it is inconceivable that the will is a forgery," he said.
Chan later insisted that
the will he possesses is authentic. "When the
water subsides, the rocks emerge. I believe the
truth will be found out," he said.
Dr Kung Yan-sum, Nina's younger brother, who is on the board of the Chinachem
Charitable Foundation, said he was very happy with the ruling.
"Even my sister's spirit
in the sky is also smiling," Kung said
at a press conference. "And I think the majority
of the people [in Hong Kong] are happy." He
insisted that the size of the estate was certainly
"in 11 digits", that is, worth more than $10
billion.
"The money
will be used to support charity work," he said in a press conference, also
attended by Nina's sisters and their lawyer, held shortly after the judgment
was handed down.
"Today's judgment showed that there is justice in the world," Kung, also the
director of the Chinachem Group, said.
Solicitor Keith Ho, for Chinachem Charitable Foundation, said that following
the judgment the entire estate of Nina would be inherited by the foundation.
The foundation had the right to claim legal fees from Chan, but without
disclosing the amount, he said.
Shanghai-born Wang first became a subject of fascination in Hong Kong, the
money-obsessed city of 7 million people, when Teddy was abducted for the first
time on April 12, 1983. Reportedly chained to a bed for eight days, he was
freed after his wife paid US$11 million in ransom.
After a second kidnapping seven years later, the Chinachem founder was never
seen again, even though Wang had paid US$34 million of the US$60 million ransom
demanded by his abductors.
In 1999, although his wife continued to insist that he was alive, making a
point of referring to him in the present tense, Teddy was declared legally
dead. In his absence, she had taken control of Chinachem and entered a
prolonged battle with Teddy's nonagenarian father, Wang Din-shin, over her
husband's will, no fewer than three versions of which had turned up. The one
Wang favored left everything to her.
Ultimately, in 2005, after she had lost the first two legal rounds against her
father-in-law and appeared to face a prison term for forgery, the Court of
Final Appeal ruled in her favor, and Chinachem was hers.
In his testimony in June, Chan, who is married with three children, said his
relationship with the tycoon began in 1992, when his offer of a head massage
quickly turned into a full-body treatment. Soon thereafter, he continued, she
was calling him "hubby" and they were spending nights together.
Chan also produced a video in which he and Wang are seen burning money and
incense at a Taoist temple in Hong Kong in a gesture that he said was intended
to seal their relationship. Even before this ceremony, he testified, Wang had
begun referring to him as her husband, but in the video she can clearly be
heard calling him "Kung Kung" - which means eunuch in Chinese.
Chan's defense team maintained that Wang had wanted to have a baby with him and
had even undergone estrogen treatments in Canada with this aim in mind.
Chan denied knowing anything about feng shui. He said that 80 alleged
holes dug in the ground at Chinachem's properties were only "a game" between
the couple and they were never intended to be a ritual to combat Wang's illness
and to help locate her husband.
Chan, who has said he was Wang's lover from 1992 until she died in 2007, said
in his testimony his relationship with the tycoon began in 1992. Wang had left
him billions of dollars in the will dated October 16, 2006, out of love, he
said.
But Chinachem claimed the cash given to Chan was for feng shui services,
and even if there was more to the relationship he was a "toy boy" or a eunuch
in the court of the Empress Dowager.
The foundation contested the veracity of the will by bringing in a handwriting
expert who said the signatures of Nina and two witnesses were forged.
The judge said the signatures of Nina and Winfield Wong, one of the two
witnesses in the 2006 will, were highly skilled simulations.
"Having considered all the evidence, viz factual evidence and expert opinions,
as well as considering relevant circumstantial background, including the
relationship between Nina and Chan and her mindset in October 2006, I find that
the 2006 will was not signed by Nina and it was not attested to by Winfield
Wong and Ng Shun Mo [another witness in the 2006 will]," he said in ruling,
which ran to more than 300 pages.
Last June, Chan testified he once advised a client to burn real money for good
luck. With his intention to appeal, he is prepared to risk seeing his own go up
in smoke.
Olivia Chung is a senior Asia Times Online reporter.
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