| yellowpower | 05-12-2009 04:24 PM |
Richest Woman in China Dies ; Court Decides Who Gets the $4.2 Billion
Link: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...tYw&refer=home Quote:
May 12 (Bloomberg) -- It’s a tale of love, murder, feng shui and $4.2 billion.
For the second time in a decade, the wealth amassed by property tycoon Teddy Wang has ended up in Hong Kong’s high court, which began a trial yesterday to decide whether the fortune should go to the family run company Wang built or to a 50-year-old feng shui master called Tony Chan.
The court will judge which is the real will of Nina Wang, Teddy’s wife, who herself had to wrest control of the inheritance in 1999 after her kidnapped husband was declared legally dead, though his body was never found.
At stake is the wealth of Asia’s richest woman when she died in 2007, according to Forbes magazine, including control of Chinachem Group, the company she built with Teddy, which owns some 200 buildings in Hong Kong and millions of square feet of development land.
“The estate battle is just like a soap opera,” said Kenny Tang, Hong Kong-based executive director of Redford Securities Co. “The details are too absurd even for a movie.”
The dispute is a further twist in the fate of a fortune Teddy Wang built up over three decades, turning his father’s Shanghai paint and chemical business into one of Hong Kong’s biggest closely held real estate developers. His wife only gained control of his estate years after Teddy had been kidnapped and presumed dead.
‘Little Sweetie’
Dubbed “Little Sweetie” by the Hong Kong media for her pigtails and traditional Chinese dresses, Nina Wang died of cancer on April 3, 2007, at the age of 69. The Shanghai native, born Nina Kung, was a childhood friend of Teddy, whom she married in 1955. They had no children.
Chan will present the famous pigtails at the trial as evidence of their intimate relationship, the Standard newspaper reported yesterday, citing an unidentified spokesman for Chan.
Denis Chang, a lawyer for the Chinachem foundation, told the court that Nina Wang gave Chan three payments totaling HK$2.06 billion ($265.8 million), the Standard reported today.
Wang left her estate to Chan because he understood her personal and business philosophy, Jonathan Midgley, a lawyer at Haldanes, the firm representing Chan, told reporters on April 20, 2007, 13 days after she died. Four days later, Chinachem filed a writ asking the court to decide which will is valid.
‘Nina’s Lover’
In November 2008, Midgley said Chan, who is married with three children, had been Nina’s “lover,” and that the two had a “long, close and affectionate relationship” for about 15 years. Chan later released photographs showing them together, with his hand on her shoulder. Midgley didn’t answer calls to his mobile phone or an e-mail seeking comment. Calls to his office were answered by his secretary, who said he was unavailable.
Chan has business interests in property development and practices feng shui as a hobby, Midgley said in 2007. The High Court appointed accountants from Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu in December 2007 to oversee Chinachem pending the trial.
Feng shui, which means “wind-water,” is a Chinese geomantic practice in which a site is chosen or a building configured in harmony with spiritual energy.
“I can say that in all 27 years I’ve known Nina, I never heard of, nor met, Tony Chan,” Ringo Wong, managing director of Chinachem Entertainment Ltd. and Wang’s former personal assistant, told reporters on April 27. He declined to comment on the trial.
Settlement Offer
Chan offered to settle out of court, saying it could save a “lot of time,” the Standard newspaper reported on Feb. 26.
Chan asked the court if he could call a second handwriting expert after his first-choice graphologist said Wang’s signature on Chan’s will was a fake, the South China Morning Post reported on May 1, citing the lawyers.
“It’s a weak case for Chan, both on the evidence and psychologically,” said Tak Wong, a partner at Hong Kong law firm Wong Shum & Co., which doesn’t represent either side. “It’s highly possible the court would rule in favor of Chinachem.”
It’s not the first time the court has had to decide the fate of the Wang fortune.
Nina Wang won control of her dead husband’s estate in 2005 after Hong Kong’s highest court ruled that she didn’t conspire to forge his will, overturning rulings by lower courts in 2002 and 2004 that gave the fortune to her father-in-law, Wang Din- shin, according to the court.
Kidnapped Twice
Teddy Wang, who kept a regular schedule and refused to hire bodyguards, was kidnapped in 1983 and again in 1990. He wasn’t returned after the second abduction, even after his wife paid part of the ransom. Years later, one of the captured kidnappers said Teddy Wang’s body was dumped into the sea from a sampan, a small boat.
Nina ran Chinachem using a power of attorney, insisting Teddy was still alive. When her father-in-law had Teddy legally declared dead in 1999, she said Teddy had made her his heir in a new will signed just before his kidnap.
As part of the campaign to discredit Chan’s claim, Chinachem put on a Cantonese puppet show last week called “One Life One Love,” detailing the love affair between Nina and Teddy at the group’s cinema. The title of the 80-minute show is a phrase from Teddy Wang’s will.
“The puppet show’s goal is to let people understand how strong the love is between her and Teddy,” said Ringo Wong of Chinachem. “It’s ludicrous to suggest she’d be having an affair with another man.”
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