Fortune-teller Chan loses
last hope of Wang fortune By Olivia Chung
HONG KONG - Feng shuimaster Tony Chan Chun-chuen faces a bleak future
following a Court of Final Appeal ruling that ended his long-running battle for
the multi-billion dollar fortune left by Nina Wang Kung Yu-sum - once Asia's
richest woman, more than two decades older than Chan and possibly his one-time
lover.
After getting rich on claims to be a fortune teller, all he has left now is his
own trial for alleged forgery and the possibility of paying much of his
opponent's HK$200 million legal bill on top of his own fees. A company he ran
is facing legal action and his closest
friends appear to have deserted him. And legislators are questioning how feng
shuimasters in Hong Kong are assessed for tax.
Wang, a property developer, left a HK$60 billion fortune when she died in
April, 2007, aged 69. Two weeks later, Chan, now 51, claimed it belonged to him
under a 2006 will. That ran counter to a 2002 will held by the Chinachem
Charitable Foundation, which Wang and her late husband founded in 1988, leaving
the estate to the foundation. Wang had no children, but is survived by five
siblings, one of whom chairs the charity body.
Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal on Monday rejected Chan's application for
leave to appeal against a lower court ruling that his claim to the estate is
groundless, bringing his four-year legal battle with the Chinachem foundation
to a close. In February this year, the lower Court of Appeal said Chan had
pursued "a thoroughly dishonest case" in trying to claim Wang's estate. It
rejected his plea against a High Court finding 12 months earlier that his 2006
will was forged.
By this time Chan was already in policy custody, arrested a day after the High
Court ruling. In May this year, he was released on HK$20 million bail and a
HK$20 million surety provided by his brother after being charged with forgery
and using a false instrument.
The tax man is also on his case, demanding HK$350 million in profit tax arising
from 23 properties and feng shuifees he had received from Wang. His
battle of wills has prompted lawmaker Jeffrey Lam Kin-fung to ask how the
Inland Revenue Department sets about assessing the taxes of self-employed
people such as feng shui and massage workers.
Feng shui is big business in Hong Kong, with even the government an
important customer. City officials last year admitted to spending at least
HK$72 million over the past 10 years on construction projects and rituals
recommended by geomancers to remedy or avoid disruption of the chi, or
energy, of a landscape.
Chan's claims that he did not carry on any trade, business or profession during
the relevant period are undermined by details he let out during the High Court
hearing. He said that after their first encounter in 1992, which led to a body
massage and a long-term sexual relationship, Wang paid him a total of HK$2
billion, including on one occasion HK$50,000 for a head rub.
Chan, 23 years younger than Wang and a married man with three children,
insisted they were lovers and the payments were gifts of love. He denied that
more than 80 holes dug between 1993 and 2006 under buildings owned by Wang's
Chinachem Group were related to feng shui, saying they were just like a
"game between the couple". He produced a video in which he referred to Wang as
"Piggy" and himself as "Daddy Piggy" to underscore their love relationship.
In 1999, Chan founded RCG Holdings, a Hong Kong-listed provider of biometric
products and solution services, which was 13% owned by Wang through Veron
International and 15% owned by Chan through Offshore Group Holdings. In March
this year, Veron International filed a lawsuit against RCG related to the
existence or otherwise of contracts between RCG and hospitals.
Two top RCG executives, Raymond Chu Wai-man - "my best friend" - and Anita Chau
Pak-kun, have quit the firm. "I don't know whether he [Chu] treats me as his
friend now. [We] haven't met up for a while." Chan said in an interview with
The Standard in June this year.
Wang's younger brother and chairman of the charity foundation, Kung Yan-sum, on
Monday toasted the judgment with champagne in Tsuen Wan, Kowloon, where
Chinachem's 42-story steel-and-glass Nina Tower sits alongside the 80-story
Teddy Tower, named after Wang's late husband. Joining the celebration were
Wang's three sisters and another brother and staff from the Chinachem Group.
Chan's fortune-telling skills failed to identify his own fate, but Kung stood
by the dictum, "There is justice in heaven and on earth," a term he used at
various stages in the legal process. Kung said the court results and the
charges facing Chan were karma for Chan's greed.
"There's a Chinese saying: 'Good is rewarded with good, and evil with evil.
[Karma] will come, sooner or later'."
Wang's fortune would now help the Chinachem Charitable Foundation to be run
better and be extended beyond Hong Kong, he said.
Chan was less clear about his own future when he spoke last June, saying he had
"no idea" what he would do next - although he still insisted he had not forged
the will. He does have his regrets. "If I had it to do again, I would not have
disclosed our love affair," Chan said. "It not only ruined Nina's reputation
but also hurt my wife and my children."
The Wang family are already familiar with Hong Kong's highest court. Wang
herself had fought out a probate battle with her father-in-law, Wang Din Shin,
over the estate of her late husband, Teddy.
The fight went all the way to the Court of Final Appeal, which found in her
favor. Teddy, former head of the Chinachem Group, had disappeared in 1990 after
the second of two kidnappings (the first was in 1983) but was not declared
legally dead until 1999.
Olivia Chung is a senior Asia Times Online reporter.
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