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Thursday 4 February 2010
Feng shui master arrested in Hong Kong over tycoon’s will
Hong Kong police arrested a feng shui master Wednesday after the High Court dismissed as fraudulent his claim to the estate of eccentric property tycoon Nina Wang.
Feng shui master arrested in Hong Kong over tycoon’s will
AFP 03 February 2010
Hong Kong police arrested a feng shui master Wednesday after the High Court dismissed as fraudulent his claim to the estate of eccentric property tycoon Nina Wang.
Tony Chan, a 50-year-old former bartender, was taken into custody after investigators searched his 30-million-US-dollar home in the city’s upmarket Peak district Wednesday afternoon.
“The police today arrested a 50-year-old man surnamed Chan,” a police spokeswoman said.
“He is expected to be related to a forgery case,” she said, adding that files and a computer were also seized. “The case is still under investigation.”
Chan had argued unsuccessfully that he was the legitimate heir to Wang’s vast fortune on the basis of a will he produced which he said bore her signature.
Television footage showed Chan inside a blue police van, his face obscured by a curtain across the window as a crush of photographers struggled to get a picture.
His lawyer declined to comment on the arrest.
After the court ruling Tuesday, Chan insisted that his claim to Wang’s estimated 13 billion US dollar fortune was valid and said he would appeal.
The high-profile case gripped the city and generated blanket media coverage, with Chan frequently cast as a charlatan who duped Wang by promising to find her kidnapped husband Teddy with feng shui rituals. Related article: Court case sheds light on Nina Wang’s life.
Teddy Wang disappeared in 1990 and his body was never found. He was declared dead in 1999, kicking off a heated legal battle between Wang and her father-in-law for control of her husband’s Chinachem Group. She eventually won the case just two years before her own death in 2007.
The pig-tailed billionaire, famous for her thrifty lifestyle and outlandish dress, was credited with growing Chinachem into one of Hong Kong’s biggest property developers.
Wang, once Asia’s richest woman, died of cancer at the age of 69, triggering a bitter feud between Chan and her charity, both claiming they were entitled to her fortune.
Earlier Wednesday, police said they would study the court ruling released Tuesday, which described Chan as a liar who manufactured a forged will to inherit the fortune.
Judge Johnson Lam -- who said Wang’s signature on the 2006 will leaving her estate to Chan was a “highly skilled simulation” -- handed the entire estate to a charitable foundation run by Wang’s siblings.
“As far as her estate was concerned, she placed a higher regard on her charitable objectives than (Chan),” Lam wrote in his 300-page ruling.
The trial heard that Chan held a slew of odd-jobs before embarking on a career advising clients on how to channel feng shui, an ancient Chinese system that claims to harness natural and spiritual energies.
The judge agreed that Chan and Wang had been lovers, but said Wang would not have viewed him as the right person to run her sprawling empire, which includes the Teddy and Nina office towers in Hong Kong’s New Territories.
The Standard newspaper reported Wednesday that the city’s tax collector is expected to bill Chan 300 million Hong Kong dollars (39 million US) for an undeclared two billion dollars Wang allegedly paid him for feng shui advice.
An Inland Revenue spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.
1 comment:
Feng shui master arrested in Hong Kong over tycoon’s will
AFP
03 February 2010
Hong Kong police arrested a feng shui master Wednesday after the High Court dismissed as fraudulent his claim to the estate of eccentric property tycoon Nina Wang.
Tony Chan, a 50-year-old former bartender, was taken into custody after investigators searched his 30-million-US-dollar home in the city’s upmarket Peak district Wednesday afternoon.
“The police today arrested a 50-year-old man surnamed Chan,” a police spokeswoman said.
“He is expected to be related to a forgery case,” she said, adding that files and a computer were also seized. “The case is still under investigation.”
Chan had argued unsuccessfully that he was the legitimate heir to Wang’s vast fortune on the basis of a will he produced which he said bore her signature.
Television footage showed Chan inside a blue police van, his face obscured by a curtain across the window as a crush of photographers struggled to get a picture.
His lawyer declined to comment on the arrest.
After the court ruling Tuesday, Chan insisted that his claim to Wang’s estimated 13 billion US dollar fortune was valid and said he would appeal.
The high-profile case gripped the city and generated blanket media coverage, with Chan frequently cast as a charlatan who duped Wang by promising to find her kidnapped husband Teddy with feng shui rituals. Related article: Court case sheds light on Nina Wang’s life.
Teddy Wang disappeared in 1990 and his body was never found. He was declared dead in 1999, kicking off a heated legal battle between Wang and her father-in-law for control of her husband’s Chinachem Group. She eventually won the case just two years before her own death in 2007.
The pig-tailed billionaire, famous for her thrifty lifestyle and outlandish dress, was credited with growing Chinachem into one of Hong Kong’s biggest property developers.
Wang, once Asia’s richest woman, died of cancer at the age of 69, triggering a bitter feud between Chan and her charity, both claiming they were entitled to her fortune.
Earlier Wednesday, police said they would study the court ruling released Tuesday, which described Chan as a liar who manufactured a forged will to inherit the fortune.
Judge Johnson Lam -- who said Wang’s signature on the 2006 will leaving her estate to Chan was a “highly skilled simulation” -- handed the entire estate to a charitable foundation run by Wang’s siblings.
“As far as her estate was concerned, she placed a higher regard on her charitable objectives than (Chan),” Lam wrote in his 300-page ruling.
The trial heard that Chan held a slew of odd-jobs before embarking on a career advising clients on how to channel feng shui, an ancient Chinese system that claims to harness natural and spiritual energies.
The judge agreed that Chan and Wang had been lovers, but said Wang would not have viewed him as the right person to run her sprawling empire, which includes the Teddy and Nina office towers in Hong Kong’s New Territories.
The Standard newspaper reported Wednesday that the city’s tax collector is expected to bill Chan 300 million Hong Kong dollars (39 million US) for an undeclared two billion dollars Wang allegedly paid him for feng shui advice.
An Inland Revenue spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.
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