Mid Dec hearing set on Nina Wang estate

Updated: 2012-12-06 07:08

By Timothy Chui(HK Edition)

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The Department of Justice (DOJ) has declined to reveal the exact value of the late-Nina Wang's estimated HK$60 billion fortune, prior to a judicial examination which will determine how the estate will be distributed.

The nondisclosure comes after lawmaker James To Kun-sun made enquiries into exactly how large the estate was and how the DOJ has been handling and safeguarding the vast sum.

The DOJ is the protector of charities under the law, and has been responsible for overseeing the estate of the Chinachem co-founder since December 2007. The department will discuss how to distribute the 11-digit fortune at the High Court on December 17.

The estate has been at the center of two epic probate battles, first between Nina Wang and her father-in-law after the sensational 1990 kidnapping and disappearance of Wang's husband Teddy.

Dubbed Asia's richest woman by Forbes Magazine in 2007, her death that year sparked a subsequent confrontation between her fung shui master and purported lover Tony Chan Chun-chuen, now 54, and the Chinachem Charitable Foundation Limited (CCFL) controlled by Wang's siblings.

The city's highest court ruled in February 2011 in favor of a will produced by the foundation, which read "(at) my death, my entire estate shall be appropriated to the Chinachem Charitable Foundation Limited".

The ambiguous wording of the will failed to clarify whether the estate would be overseen as a trust or as a charity. The mid-December hearing will attempt to clarify the construction of the will.

Secretary for Justice Yuen Kwok-keung wrote in a written reply on Wednesday that matters concerning the administration and value of the estate's properties were subject to the court's supervision and were not to be disclosed to the public.

A group of professional accountants has been appointed by the courts to serve as independent interim administrators of the fortune.

The pro-tem administrators are mandated to manage the properties and affairs of the estate and to require parties to deliver custody, control and management in order to preserve them.

The administrators are not authorized to make any distribution without the department and CCFL's combined consent.

Yuen stressed his role was not to sit as a regulator of charities, which are allowed to operate autonomously under their own governing bodies and in accordance with their own rules and regulations.

He added the DOJ would not intervene unless there were sufficient information or evidence of potential breaches of charitable trust or maladministration.

The foundation, currently controlled by Wang's brother Kung Yan-sum, reportedly wrote to Vice-President Xi Jinping requesting help in administering the fortune, by appointing Tian Chenggang, son of former vice-premier Tian Jiyun, as a middleman between Hong Kong and Beijing to monitor the fund.

tim@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 12/06/2012 page1)