Hong Kong feng shui master inherits $4bn fortune
The announcement came as relatives filed their own legal papers over the wealth of the late eccentric, whose property empire and miser’s lifestyle made her a regular feature on both the business and the gossip pages.
The pigtailed, miniskirt-wearing mogul, aged 69, encouraged people to call her ‘little sweetie’.
Attorneys said a 2006 will written by Wang, who died this month from cancer, had left the entire legacy to feng shui master Chan Chun Chuen — a figure other feng shui masters in Hong Kong said they had never heard of.
“Mr Chan is very honoured by the trust and affection which Nina Wang has shown in passing her entire estate to him,” said a legal notice published in several Hong Kong newspapers. In dealing with it, Mr Chan will at all times have regard to the values by which Nina Wang managed her business interests and personal affairs during her life.”
Speaking at a press conference, lawyer Jonathan Midgely said: “My firm is currently preparing the necessary papers to prove the will and obtain the appropriate grant from the court to allow in due course Mr Chan to take possession of Mrs Wang’s estate.”
Midgely, who also served as Wang’s counsel during her bitter eight-year battle against her father-in-law for control of her late husband’s estate, did not say why Wang left her entire estate to someone outside her family.
“(Chan) understands that Mrs Wang decided that it was best if her business interests were left to one person who had the necessary experience to continue to manage the Chinachem Group and would do so in a way consistent with her own philosophy,” Midgely said. “Mr Chan is touched and honoured that Mrs Wang decided that he was suitable to be given the responsibility for continuing her work,” he added.
“It is to be hoped that Mrs Wang’s wishes will be respected by all concerned.”
The lawyer said Chan used to give advice on feng shui but this had now become his hobby. He also said Chan would continue to help Wang’s charitable foundation.
Midgely did not answer reporters’ questions.
In death as in life, Wang has generated controversy and has filled the daily papers in Hong Kong, a wealth-obsessed financial hub where rumours abound over what will happen to the fortune the miniskirt-wearing mogul left behind.
Some have even suggested there might be considerably more than the $4.2 billion Forbes estimated she was worth last year — vast wealth she made by transforming her husband’s company, Chinachem, into a real estate empire.
She seized control of Chinachem after the disappearance of her husband Teddy, who was kidnapped in 1990 and never heard from again. She long insisted he was still alive even after the courts declared him legally dead in 1999.
But her father-in-law, Wang Din-shin, now 96, sued to get control of Teddy’s assets in a bitter court battle that saw the two sides trade accusations of adultery, sloth and naked greed. She won in 2005.
Now two younger sisters and a brother of Nina have filed their own papers over the estate in the name of a charity trust connected to Chinachem. They say the trust was named as the executor of a will that Wang purportedly wrote in 2002, possibly paving the way for a second court fight over the fortune.
In a further twist, the Oriental Daily News said the family held a third and final will written just before the tycoon’s death on April 4. It did not say when the purported document was dated. The new document, which was similar to the 2002 one, indicated her assets should be used for charitable purposes, and provide care and support for her father-in-law, his wife, Teddy’s siblings and their children.
Midgely did not comment on whether there was a newer will but said he did not see the legal challenge by Wang’s family as a “hostile act but just a prudent step taken by experienced solicitors”.
Little is known about Chan. Even Wang’s top aides know little about Chan, who is believed to also be a billionaire.
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