Fung shui master told billionaire she’d live forever if he was in will, barrister says
Peter Brieger 11 November 2008
The battle for Nina Wang Kung Yu-sum’s estate took a surprise turn yesterday when the late billionaire’s charitable foundation claimed that Wang was promised eternal life if she signed over her vast fortune to fung shui master Tony Chan Chun-chuen.
“We say [Tony Chan] lied to the deceased by telling her that performing certain fung shui practices - including putting his name in her will - would ensure that she would live forever, or at least a very long time,” barrister Geoffrey Vos, QC, told Mr Justice Johnson Lam Man-hon in the Court of First Instance.
The disclosure came as Mr Chan’s barrister, Jonathan Harris SC, accused Chinachem Charitable Foundation of withholding medical evidence that would shed light on Wang’s state of mind before she succumbed to cancer in April last year.
Chinachem has said the terminally ill Wang, once Asia’s richest woman, did not have the mental capacity to sign her HK$100 billion estate over to Mr Chan.
Both sides have pointed to rival wills, dated four years apart, which they claimed would prove each was the rightful heir to Wang’s fortune.
An eight-week trial was expected to start after Easter next year, the court heard.
Mr Justice Lam told yesterday’s hearing that he did not want the trial to become a debate among experts about fung shui.
“This is a court of law, not a court of fung shui,” he said.
Mr Vos assured the judge that the so-called fung shui evidence would consider only whether Mr Chan’s advice was legitimate or an attempt to gain control of Wang’s money.
“Your judgment won’t deal with whether digging a hole in the east is better than digging a hole in the west,” he added.
Another thorny issue centred on whether a lawyer and a senior Chinachem executive had both signed a copy of a will that Mr Chan claimed gave him legal title to Wang’s estate.
Yesterday, lawyers for solicitor Winfield Wong Wing-cheung and Chinachem sales manager Ng Shung-mo said the pair had agreed to hand over samples of their handwriting for expert analysis.
But neither man would confirm their signatures were on the will, the court heard.
Last month, Mr Harris accused the two men of playing an “elaborate charade” by first claiming that they had not seen a copy of Wang’s will and, when that was revealed to be untrue, refusing to give evidence about the document.
Mr Harris also disputed Chinachem’s contention that it did not hand over Wang’s medical records until recently because one of her sisters had the documents.
Correspondence between the two sides had proved otherwise, Mr Harris claimed.
“This appears to be a fairly transparent attempt to create more delay,” the barrister added.
Wang died less than two years after she won a bitter, decade-long battle with her father-in-law, Wang Din-shin, over the estate of her husband, Teddy Wang Teh-huei. The founder of the Chinachem Group conglomerate, Teddy Wang has not been seen since he was kidnapped in 1990.
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Nina Wang was duped, court told
Fung shui master told billionaire she’d live forever if he was in will, barrister says
Peter Brieger
11 November 2008
The battle for Nina Wang Kung Yu-sum’s estate took a surprise turn yesterday when the late billionaire’s charitable foundation claimed that Wang was promised eternal life if she signed over her vast fortune to fung shui master Tony Chan Chun-chuen.
“We say [Tony Chan] lied to the deceased by telling her that performing certain fung shui practices - including putting his name in her will - would ensure that she would live forever, or at least a very long time,” barrister Geoffrey Vos, QC, told Mr Justice Johnson Lam Man-hon in the Court of First Instance.
The disclosure came as Mr Chan’s barrister, Jonathan Harris SC, accused Chinachem Charitable Foundation of withholding medical evidence that would shed light on Wang’s state of mind before she succumbed to cancer in April last year.
Chinachem has said the terminally ill Wang, once Asia’s richest woman, did not have the mental capacity to sign her HK$100 billion estate over to Mr Chan.
Both sides have pointed to rival wills, dated four years apart, which they claimed would prove each was the rightful heir to Wang’s fortune.
An eight-week trial was expected to start after Easter next year, the court heard.
Mr Justice Lam told yesterday’s hearing that he did not want the trial to become a debate among experts about fung shui.
“This is a court of law, not a court of fung shui,” he said.
Mr Vos assured the judge that the so-called fung shui evidence would consider only whether Mr Chan’s advice was legitimate or an attempt to gain control of Wang’s money.
“Your judgment won’t deal with whether digging a hole in the east is better than digging a hole in the west,” he added.
Another thorny issue centred on whether a lawyer and a senior Chinachem executive had both signed a copy of a will that Mr Chan claimed gave him legal title to Wang’s estate.
Yesterday, lawyers for solicitor Winfield Wong Wing-cheung and Chinachem sales manager Ng Shung-mo said the pair had agreed to hand over samples of their handwriting for expert analysis.
But neither man would confirm their signatures were on the will, the court heard.
Last month, Mr Harris accused the two men of playing an “elaborate charade” by first claiming that they had not seen a copy of Wang’s will and, when that was revealed to be untrue, refusing to give evidence about the document.
Mr Harris also disputed Chinachem’s contention that it did not hand over Wang’s medical records until recently because one of her sisters had the documents.
Correspondence between the two sides had proved otherwise, Mr Harris claimed.
“This appears to be a fairly transparent attempt to create more delay,” the barrister added.
Wang died less than two years after she won a bitter, decade-long battle with her father-in-law, Wang Din-shin, over the estate of her husband, Teddy Wang Teh-huei. The founder of the Chinachem Group conglomerate, Teddy Wang has not been seen since he was kidnapped in 1990.
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