Alleged lover of Nina Wang backs claims to estate

Thursday, June 25, 2009 at 9:13 PM Posted by Beijing News


HONG KONG – The alleged lover of Asia's richest businesswoman defended his claim Thursday to her multibillion-dollar estate, testifying that they shared a life of feng shui, cooking and playing with model helicopters.

Nina Wang was one of Hong Kong's most colorful people, known as "Little Sweetie" for her girlish outfits and pigtails. She died at age 69 of cancer in April 2007.

In his second day of testimony, 49-year-old feng shui adviser Tony Chan Chun-chuen said he and Wang were lovers and that she left him her fortune in an October 2006 will.

But the Chinachem Charitable Foundation, set up by Wang and her late husband, claims her estate under a competing will dated July 2002.

Chan said he and Wang shared many interests, including feng shui, the traditional Chinese practice of improving fortunes by actions like the placement of objects.

"We played every day. We shared many activities every day. Feng shui was one of our interests, but we also liked to play with model helicopters. We cooked together, we traveled together," he said.

Chan said he advised Wang to dig holes at properties owned by her husband's company in 1992 to improve her luck.

"Digging holes became a husband-and-wife game I played with Nina," Chan said.

He testified Wednesday that his affair with Wang was already ongoing when his wife was pregnant with their eldest son.

Wang inherited her husband's fortune after an eight-year court battle against her father-in-law.

Her husband was abducted in 1990, and though the family paid $33 million in ransom, he was never released and his body never found. Wang went on to build her husband's company, Chinachem, into a massive property developer, with office towers and apartment complexes throughout Hong Kong.

In 2007, Forbes magazine ranked her as the world's No. 204 richest person with a fortune of US$4.2 billion, but it is not clear how much her estate is currently worth.

Chan said Thursday he first met Wang at a lunch organized by a friend in March 1992, when the late businesswoman asked her if his feng shui expertise could help track down her husband. Wang always believed he was still alive, even though Teddy Wang was declared legally dead in 1999.

Chan said he responded it was a tough challenge but that he could try to improve her fortunes through feng shui.

"I remember I said, 'He's been missing for so many years. It will be hard to find him,'" he said.







Glastonbury Festival in England on June 25.REUTERS/Luke MacGregor

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