Police Arrest Feng Shui Adviser
Jonathan Cheng
February 3, 2010
The Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703575004575043050543372766.html?mod=WSJ_World_LEFTSecondNews
HONG KONG—Police on Wednesday arrested Tony Chan, the feng-shui adviser who lost his claim on the multibillion-dollar estate of heiress Nina Wang, in relation to possible forgery.

Mr. Chan, a former lover of Ms. Wang, produced a will purporting to hand over her real-estate fortune to himself. A Hong Kong judge ruled Tuesday that the will was likely a forgery.

A spokeswoman for the Hong Kong police confirmed the arrest and said Mr. Chan hadn’t been charged with any crimes.

The offices of Jonathan Midgley, a lawyer for Mr. Chan, didn’t return a message left late Wednesday seeking comment.

Police arrested Mr. Chan in the early evening at his residence in Hong Kong’s exclusive Peak area. The arrest, made by the police’s commercial crime bureau, was in relation to a possible forgery, the spokeswoman said. Police said they also seized documents and computers from the gated residence.

Mr. Chan’s arrest is the latest twist in a battle over a fortune that has extended for nearly two decades. Ms. Wang, who assumed her late husband’s estate after a protracted legal battle with her father-in-law, was herself arrested by Hong Kong police for allegedly forging a will that turned her husband’s fortune over to her.

After Hong Kong’s highest court overturned that ruling in 2005, those charges were dropped and Ms. Wang was awarded the fortune.

Days after Ms. Wang’s death from cancer, at age 69, in 2007, Mr. Chan presented a 2006 will that he said turned over Ms. Wang’s entire fortune to him.

On Tuesday, Judge Johnson Lam called that 2006 will a “highly skilled” forgery, and instead affirmed a 2002 will in which Ms. Wang gave her estate to a charitable foundation.

Judge Lam called Mr. Chan’s testimony during the four-month trial “disingenuous” and full of discrepancies, saying that he “lied and withheld relevant information from the court” about the drafting of the 2006 will. Mr. Midgley said Tuesday that Mr. Chan would appeal the verdict, calling it “inconceivable that that will is a forgery.”

Mr. Chan, 50 years old, said his relationship with Ms. Wang began in 1992. Judge Lam was unpersuaded by the romance, and wrote in his decision that Mr. Chan had for years been exploiting Ms. Wang’s superstitiousness and desperation to find her kidnapped husband by offering feng shui expertise.

Claim for Nina Wang’s Billions Rejected
Jonathan Cheng
February 3, 2010
The Wall Street Journal
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704107204575040033470013198.html
A Hong Kong judge ruled against the feng shui master of heiress Nina Wang in his efforts to win control of her multibillion-dollar estate, a turning point in the battle over one of Asia’s great fortunes.

Tony Chan claimed to be Ms. Wang’s longtime lover and beneficiary, after her death in 2007. In his ruling Tuesday, Hong Kong Judge Johnson Lam deemed the 2006 will that Mr. Chan produced a “forgery.”

Ms. Wang won control of her husband Teddy Wang’s multibillion-dollar Chinachem property empire in 2005 after his kidnapping and disappearance in 1990 and a protracted court battle with Mr. Wang’s father that involved three competing wills.

Tuesday’s decision, which Mr. Chan’s lawyer said he planned to appeal, grants Ms. Wang’s estate to the Chinachem Charitable Foundation Ltd., which was named by Ms. Wang in a 2002 will as the sole beneficiary of her fortune. The foundation, she said in her will, was to create a type of Nobel Prize for China—a prize that, according to the will, she envisioned as being administered by the United Nations secretary-general, the Chinese premier, and the chief executive of Hong Kong.

“The 2002 will was the product of Nina’s charitable aspiration, an aspiration consistently held by her both before and after her probate dispute,” Judge Lam wrote in his verdict.

A lawyer for the foundation, Keith Ho, said he was “very happy” with the ruling.

Ms. Wang’s brother, Kung Yan-sum, said at a news conference that the verdict was a victory, “not only for our family, but for society at large, which my sister’s foundation was to benefit.”

Mr. Kung described Mr. Chan’s attempts to contest Ms. Wang’s will as wasteful.

“If it weren’t for him, the foundation’s work could have begun smoothly three years ago,” he said.

Jonathan Midgley, a lawyer for Mr. Chan, said “Mr. Chan is extremely disappointed in this judgment today, but he appreciates how difficult this sort of trial is to judge.” He added that Mr. Chan’s “position is today the same as it’s always been, namely that the will in question was given to him by Nina and, accordingly, it is inconceivable that that will is a forgery.”

During the four-month trial, Mr. Chan said his relationship with Ms. Wang began in 1992 when she hired him to do feng shui work.

Ms. Wang’s two sisters and brother testified that Ms. Wang had remained in love with her kidnapped husband, convinced that he was still alive and sending her messages from an undisclosed location.

Judge Lam said in his ruling Tuesday that the evidence showed Ms. Wang wanted the secret of her relationship with Mr. Chan “to be buried together with her after her death.”

“The court does not believe that their relationship was such that Nina was prepared to give him her entire estate irrespective of her other commitments and responsibilities,” he wrote.

Judge Lam said there was evidence that Mr. Chan had been preparing for a legal battle “for quite some time before her demise.”

In 2007, at the time of her death from cancer at the age of 69, Ms. Wang’s wealth had been estimated to be $4.2 billion by Forbes magazine.

Ms. Wang, who took the reins of Chinachem with the title of “chairlady” after her husband’s disappearance, fostered a reputation for frugality.

She boasted in interviews that she spent less than $400 a month on herself.

Ms. Wang also was widely known for her eccentric style of dress. She appeared publicly in bright miniskirts and bouncing pigtails that earned her the Cantonese nickname Siu Tim Tim, or Little Sweetie.