2006 Nina Wang will is a forgery, lawyer tells court
Claim based on report by UK forensic handwriting expert
Yvonne Tsui 31 March 2009
The will of late tycoon Nina Wang Kung Yu-sum allegedly made in 2006 that left her multibillion-dollar estate to fung shui master Tony Chan Chun-chuen was a forgery, a court heard yesterday.
Denis Chang SC, for the Chinachem Charitable Foundation, made the allegation in a hearing about seven weeks before the trial’s scheduled start on May 11.
Lawyers for the billionaire’s foundation were seeking to plead a case of forgery after a forensic handwriting expert from Britain, Robert Radley, had provided them with a report on March 23. Mr. Chang said the expert report contained an analysis of 80 specimens of Wang’s signatures from 2003 to 2007.
Outside court yesterday, the foundation’s lawyer Keith Ho Man-kei said the allegation of forgery was based on Mr. Radley’s expert report and the witness statements from lawyer Winfield Wong Wing-cheung and Chinachem sales executive Ng Shung-mo.
Lawyers for Mr. Chan had claimed earlier that Mr. Wong and Mr. Ng were the attesting witnesses to the 2006 will, but this claim was denied by the foundation on March 13 in court. It said the two witnesses had actually signed another document.
“We are confident that we have sufficient evidence to show that [the 2006 will] is a forged document,” Mr. Ho said after yesterday’s hearing.
“The reason we make this allegation only at this stage is that this is a very serious allegation and we need to gather enough evidence to support this claim.”
He declined to specify which part of the will was false and he also made no suggestion as to the identity of the alleged forger. He confirmed that no police report had yet been made concerning the alleged fraud because the Department of Justice was involved in the writ, but the department would proceed accordingly if there was a criminal case.
The foundation had challenged the authenticity of the 2006 will on the basis that Wang could have signed it under undue influence and she lacked the mental capacity to make such a will. Its lawyers will apply for leave to add the new forgery argument before Mr. Justice Johnson Lam Man-hon on April 14.
The Justice Department declined to comment yesterday.
Mr. Chan did not appear for yesterday’s hearing, but he released a statement through his public relations manager: “The plaintiff of this case [the foundation] has informed my legal team that they wish to amend the pleadings to include an allegation of forgery. All I wish to say at the moment is that I categorically deny any suggestion of forgery.”
Mr. Chan, a fung shui master turned property developer, claims he is the sole beneficiary of the Wang estate, estimated to be as much as HK$100 billion. He has claimed Wang was in love with him for 14 years before she died of cancer in April 2007.
But the foundation, controlled by Wang’s siblings, says it has a will from 2002 that left the estate to it.
Mr. Justice Lam adjourned the case to Friday, for the foundation to disclose the identity of one of its witnesses and to hear its lawyers’ application for evidence from Dinly Au, former assistant to Nina Wang.
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2006 Nina Wang will is a forgery, lawyer tells court
Claim based on report by UK forensic handwriting expert
Yvonne Tsui
31 March 2009
The will of late tycoon Nina Wang Kung Yu-sum allegedly made in 2006 that left her multibillion-dollar estate to fung shui master Tony Chan Chun-chuen was a forgery, a court heard yesterday.
Denis Chang SC, for the Chinachem Charitable Foundation, made the allegation in a hearing about seven weeks before the trial’s scheduled start on May 11.
Lawyers for the billionaire’s foundation were seeking to plead a case of forgery after a forensic handwriting expert from Britain, Robert Radley, had provided them with a report on March 23. Mr. Chang said the expert report contained an analysis of 80 specimens of Wang’s signatures from 2003 to 2007.
Outside court yesterday, the foundation’s lawyer Keith Ho Man-kei said the allegation of forgery was based on Mr. Radley’s expert report and the witness statements from lawyer Winfield Wong Wing-cheung and Chinachem sales executive Ng Shung-mo.
Lawyers for Mr. Chan had claimed earlier that Mr. Wong and Mr. Ng were the attesting witnesses to the 2006 will, but this claim was denied by the foundation on March 13 in court. It said the two witnesses had actually signed another document.
“We are confident that we have sufficient evidence to show that [the 2006 will] is a forged document,” Mr. Ho said after yesterday’s hearing.
“The reason we make this allegation only at this stage is that this is a very serious allegation and we need to gather enough evidence to support this claim.”
He declined to specify which part of the will was false and he also made no suggestion as to the identity of the alleged forger. He confirmed that no police report had yet been made concerning the alleged fraud because the Department of Justice was involved in the writ, but the department would proceed accordingly if there was a criminal case.
The foundation had challenged the authenticity of the 2006 will on the basis that Wang could have signed it under undue influence and she lacked the mental capacity to make such a will. Its lawyers will apply for leave to add the new forgery argument before Mr. Justice Johnson Lam Man-hon on April 14.
The Justice Department declined to comment yesterday.
Mr. Chan did not appear for yesterday’s hearing, but he released a statement through his public relations manager: “The plaintiff of this case [the foundation] has informed my legal team that they wish to amend the pleadings to include an allegation of forgery. All I wish to say at the moment is that I categorically deny any suggestion of forgery.”
Mr. Chan, a fung shui master turned property developer, claims he is the sole beneficiary of the Wang estate, estimated to be as much as HK$100 billion. He has claimed Wang was in love with him for 14 years before she died of cancer in April 2007.
But the foundation, controlled by Wang’s siblings, says it has a will from 2002 that left the estate to it.
Mr. Justice Lam adjourned the case to Friday, for the foundation to disclose the identity of one of its witnesses and to hear its lawyers’ application for evidence from Dinly Au, former assistant to Nina Wang.
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