The High Court today threw out a fung shui master's claim for the estimated HK$100 billion fortune of late property tycoon Nina Wang after a sensational court battle.
Judge Johnson Lam said the will in the possession of Tony Chan was a fake, and ruled in favour of a rival claim by a charity now run by Wang's siblings.
"The court finds that the 2006 will was not signed by Nina,'' the judge wrote in his ruling on the case known as the "Battle of the Wills'' that has gripped the tycoon-obsessed city.
And the HK$100 billion goes to ...
The answer will be announced in the High Court today when Justice Johnson Lam Man-hon delivers his ruling in the "Battle of the Wills" - a drama that gripped Hong Kong last year with claims of secret sex plus a staggering sum of money and bitter words.
Justice Lam has now decided on rights and wrongs of claims for the fortune left by Nina Wang Kung Yu-sum, which center on two wills allegedly signed by the property magnate known as "Little Sweetie" and who died from cancer at the age of 69 in April 2007.
One will gives the fortune estimated at HK$100 billion to the Chinachem Charitable Foundation, which she set up and is now managed by her siblings.
The other will makes fung shui master Tony Chan Chun-chuen the beneficiary. Chan, 50, claimed Wang was his lover, gave him billions of dollars and wanted to have his baby.
Chinachem claims money given to Chan was for fung shui services, and even if there was more to the relationship he was a "toy-boy" or, as one of Wang's family saw it, a eunuch in the court of the Empress Dowager.
Whatever the decision, the battle is unlikely to end today. It is almost certain the loser will go to a higher court.
But neither Chan nor Wang's siblings are expected in court today when Justice Lam delivers a written judgment of more than 300 pages.
The 40-day probate hearing for the late billionaire's assets started in the High Court on May 11 last year. Thirty- six witnesses testified in a hearing that ended on September 21. Justice Lam took four months and 10 days to decide on what was said in court.
During the hearing, Chinachem's barrister, Benjamin Yu, said there were two possible scenarios concerning the will submitted by Chan: it was a fung shui will and meant to be burned to prolong Wang's life; or the document signed in October 2006 by witnesses Winfield Wong Wing-cheung and Ng Shung-mo - and which Wong believed contained a HK$10 million gift to a man surnamed Chan - was the fung shui will and that a second document containing their signatures came
