Nina Wang's former lover a forger
- Source: Global Times
- [04:13 February 03 2010]
- Comments
Tony Chan smiles as he leaves a building in Hong Kong Tuesday. Photo: AFP
By Wu Guoyi
Feng shui master and businessman Tony Chan, who described himself as the secret lover of Nina Wang, who was Asia's richest woman before her death, lost his legal claim over Wang's estate after a Hong Kong court ruled that the will he produced was forged.
The Court of First Instance said in a 326-page judgment delivered Tuesday that Wang's estate, estimated to worth $4.2 billion by Forbes, will go to the Chinachem Charitable Foundation, which she established.
The legal right over Wang's fortune transfixed the city with stories of feng shui rituals and juicy extra-marital affairs.
The probate battle emerged after Wang died of cancer in 2007 at the age of 69, when Chan said he had a will dated October 16, 2006 that Wang bequeathed all her fortune to him, contradictory to claims by Wang's siblings that the money was to go to the charitable foundation, based on a 2002 will.
Throughout the 40-day trial, Chan argued that Wang gave him the money because of love.
Chan testified that he and Wang were secret lovers for 15 years. Wang met Chan in 1992 after she wanted Chan to help her locate her husband Teddy, who has never appeared again after being kidnapped in 1990, with feng shui rituals.
They quickly became close and had sex even though Chan was married. The court even heard that Wang had high dosages of estrogen as she wanted to have a baby with Chan.
Chan conducted feng shui activities with Wang, but he said he was not good at it and the activities were a smokescreen to shield their relationship.
But Judge Johnson Lam said Chan was not convincing.
"I also find him tailoring his case to suit his own purposes rather than giving evidence of truth," he said in the judgment.
Lam said even though there was intimacy between the two, Wang was not prepared to give Chan all her money.
"Giving him gifts or even large sums of money during Nina's lifetime when he made her happy is one thing. Making him her sole heir in respect of her entire estate is quite different," the judge wrote.
The court ruled that the 2006 will was not signed and prepared by Wang. Document examination revealed that the signature of Wang on that will was written across a crease, but the court accepted the evidence of a lawyer and Wang's staff, who witnessed Wang signing a document on October 16, 2006, that there was no crease on the document.
"The only other person who had met Nina at that time who was likely to have a part to play in the preparation of these documents was the first defendant (Chan)," Lam wrote.
Chan said he would appeal.
"Chan respectfully states that the 2006 will was given to him by Nina and it is thus inconceivable that it is a forgery," his public relations firm said.
"The judgment today shows that there is righteousness in the world," Wang's brother Kung Yan-sum said.
Wang was regarded as a colorful person. She was nicknamed "Little Sweetie" after a Japanese cartoon character and was known for her trademark pigtails.
Wang inherited the Chinachem Group, a property development firm, from Teddy after an eight-year court battle against her father-in-law ended in 2005.
