Gift$$$ of love

Fortune gift of love, says Chan
Nickkita Lau/Adele Wong
June 30, 2009
The Standard
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=30&art_id=84182&sid=24393810&con_type=1&d_str=20090630&sear_year=2009
Tony Chan Chun-chuen said tycoon Nina Wang Kung Yu-sum loved him so much she was prepared to leave her entire estate to him in a 2006 will.

Chan said Wang did not really care for the Chinachem Charitable Foundation and a 2002 will she made in favor of it was designed to please mainland authorities during her probate battle with father-in-law Wang Din-shin for the fortune of her kidnapped husband, Teddy Wang Tei-huei, who was declared legally dead in 1999.

The Court of First Instance heard yesterday that after several years of separation, Chan and Wang were reunited in 2005.

Wang had repeatedly invited him to join Chinachem Group and even asked him to replace her as chairman so she could focus on her cancer treatment.

Chan, aged 49, said he declined the offer because he felt he could not run the conglomerate and only wanted to spend time with her.

He was also unwilling to accept the three “gift payments” from Wang of HK$688 million each in 2005 and 2006.

Judge Johnson Lam Man-hon then asked Chan why he gave Wang his account number if he did not want the money. He replied he had suggested that Wang buy his company’s shares, but she insisted on showering him with “gifts.”

“She called me her hubby. She loves me so she gives me gifts.”

Foundation lawyer Lawrence Lok Ying- kam pointed out that Wang had to take out a loan in order to make one of the payments, indicating she was in need of money and this was inconsistent with the idea of a “gift.”

Chan said had he known about the loan he would not have allowed it.

Their first intimate encounter was on April 3, 1992, after which his relationship with Wang rapidly intensified.

“I went through three days of internal struggle before seeing Nina again,” Chan said. “[The intimacy] was not every frequent at the beginning but the frequency increased starting in August or September [1992].”

When Wang gave him the will on the night of October 16, 2006, Chan was surprised at how much she loved him.

He had told Wang that the will would bring him trouble, but she said what was hers should be his, Chan said.

In November 2005, Chan accompanied Wang to Boston for her cancer treatment, followed by another trip in June 2006.

Chan said they shopped at supermarkets and Wang had such a good time she wanted to spend more time with him.

He said Wang had never thought much about her empire or the foundation and so it was not strange that she wrote a will leaving everything to him. She also did not think she would die.

Asked to explain why he thought the will would give him trouble, Chan said he feared it would expose their secret relationship.

However, Lok pointed to Chan’s witness statement in which he had said: “Nina wanted the whole world to know about our relationship.” Chan replied: “Yes, she did, but I was more conservative.”

Lok noted that their relationship was now a very public matter.

Wang died on April 3, 2007, aged 69.