Dead billionaire leaves all to feng shui master
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HONG KONG (Reuters) - The sole beneficiary of Hong Kong tycoon Nina Wang's multi-billion dollar fortune is her feng shui master, a legal notice published on Friday showed, paving the way for a likely legal battle with her family.
"In her will dated 16 Oct 2006, the late Nina Wang bequeathed all her estate to Mr. Chan Chun-chuen," her lawyer said in a notice published in several local newspapers on Friday.
Little is known about Chan, whom the local media has reported as Wang's feng shui master or fortune teller and who once studied medicine in Canada.
Nicknamed "little sweetie" for her braided pigtails, mini-skirts and giggly persona, Wang, 69, died this month from cancer. She was Asia's richest woman.
Her life was touched by tragedy in 1990 when her husband Teddy Wang was abducted and never seen alive again.
Later she stirred controversy by waging a legal war against her father-in-law, Wang Din-shin to secure her husband's billions even though he had not yet been confirmed dead.
Wang won the eight-year legal battle in 2005, securing full control of the estate and of Hong Kong's largest private property developer, Chinachem group, in a probate saga that captivated the city of 7 million with tales of illicit affairs.
A source earlier told Reuters that Chan was the sole beneficiary and that all of Wang's estate, including that of her husband "gets paid on in sequence" to him.
The decision by Wang to leave her vast wealth in the hands of a single outsider, while shunning her family, is a potential bombshell and is now almost certain to spark a protracted legal battle with her family.
Wang's family has already lodged an application in court to claim its right to the inheritance, the South China Morning Post reported on Friday.
Media reports had suggested Wang, who had no children, had drafted a will in 2002 pledging much of her wealth to charity.
A press conference will be held by Wang's lawyer on Friday that could clarify Wang's relationship to Chan, and give clues as to why she left her entire fortune to him.
Wang, who was ranked the 154th richest person in the world by Forbes magazine last year, was known for her eccentricities, including her self-professed stinginess -- saying she only spent a modest HK$3,000 (US$380) a month on shopping and necessities, sometimes flashing her bargain buys to the media.
A lavish funeral was held for Wang on Wednesday that was attended by a string of tycoons and Hong Kong's political elite.
