What a pity!

Shanghai Expat Forum Index » Community Discussion Forums » Chinese Culture Discussions

Author

Message

theAutumn45
Rocker
Rocker

Joined: Oct 28, 2005
Posts: 796

Posted: Apr 22, 2007 - 02:22 AM
Post subject: What a pity!

What a pitty, she should have lefted it to the charity!

From BBC:

Wang's riches 'for feng shui man'

Nina Wang, formerly Hong Kong's richest woman, has left her fortune to her feng shui adviser, her lawyer says.
Businessman Chan Chun-chuen, 48, was the sole beneficiary of the multi-billion-dollar estate, he said. Ms Wang made the decision because Mr Chan understood her "personal philosophy", he said. The announcement sets the stage for a possible court battle, amid reports of a second will in which Ms Wang promised her money to a charitable trust.

Ms Wang, who died on 3 April, is thought to have left an estate worth about $4.2bn (£2.1bn).

Charity plan

Lawyer Jonathan Midgely described Mr Chan as a property investor who practised feng shui - the Chinese belief that a person's luck and health can be improved by the positioning of items to channel natural energy - as a hobby.

A legal notice posted in a several Hong Kong dailies said that Mr Chan was "very honoured" by the trust Ms Wang had shown in leaving him her fortune. "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," the notice said. But Hong Kong media has reported the existence of a will dated July 2002 in which Ms Wang left her fortune to a foundation linked to her Chinachem group. In that will, she is said to have asked that her money be used to establish a Chinese version of the Nobel prizes.

Members of Ms Wang's family are reported to have lodged a legal application in the name of the charity.

Mr Midgely played down talk of a conflict.
"We do not interpret this in any way as a hostile act, but a prudent step taken by experienced solicitors," he said of the family's legal action.
If a legal battle did ensue, it would not be the first over the Wang billions.
Nina Wang was first thrust into the limelight 15 years ago after her husband Teddy was abducted and never seen again. He was declared dead in 1999.

His disappearance led to a sensational legal fight between Ms Wang and her elderly father-in-law for control of Teddy Wang's billions.
Ms Wang won the eight-year battle in 2005 and was credited with expanding her husband's multinational corporation Chinachem into a real-estate empire.