HK tycoon turned to feng shui 'to prolong life'
HONG KONG (AFP) - - An ailing Hong Kong tycoon gave her feng shui master more than 264 million dollars in the hope that it would help prolong her life, a court heard.
Tony Chan, a bartender-turned-soothsayer who says he is the sole beneficiary of Nina Wang's 13-billion-dollar estate, told Hong Kong's High Court he had received three tranches of 688 million Hong Kong dollars (88.2 million US) from Wang between 2005 and 2006.
Lawrence Lok, lawyer for Chinachem Charitable Foundation, a group controlled by Wang's siblings which is challenging Chan's claim, asked the feng shui master why he was given the lavish sums of money.
"It's a gift to me. She addressed me as her hubby. She loved me. So it's a gift," said Chan, who also claims he was Wang's lover.
However, Lok pointed out that the money was advanced during a time when Wang's health was deteriorating, after she was diagnosed with cancer in late 2004. She died of the disease in 2007, aged 69.
Lok reminded the court of earlier testimony by a doctor who had said that a feng shui master had told Wang he could improve her health by taking her hair and clothes to China.
The lawyer added that another witness who travelled with Wang to Singapore for medical treatment in 2006 had said she had overheard Wang on the phone with Chan saying: "You are useless and I am not getting any better."
"You told Mrs Wang that you have means to prolong her life," Lok told Chan.
Chan denied the allegation, saying that he did not have such an ability.
The court will decide whether Wang, who at one stage was Asia's richest woman, left her entire fortune to Chan when she died. Chinachem says a 2006 will awarding the huge fortune to Chan is a fake.
The case, now in its seventh week, has filled the pages of Hong Kong's newspapers with its mixture of wealth, love and feng shui, the ancient Chinese system of channeling energy that is hugely popular in Hong Kong.
Wang -- a pigtailed, mini-skirt-wearing mogul famous for her frugality -- earlier fought a bitter eight-year court battle against her father-in-law for the estate of her late husband, Teddy.
Teddy Wang was kidnapped for a second time in 1990 and was declared legally dead nine years later, although friends say Nina Wang never gave up the search for him.
During the previous fight for control of her husband's estate, Wang was accused of forging her husband's will. She eventually won.
After his disappearance, Wang built Teddy's company, Chinachem, into a real estate empire with more than 200 office towers and 400 companies around the world.
Chan, in his fourth day on the witness stand, said that Wang had always told him of her wish to give him control of her business and had once asked him to be the chairman of Chinachem.
But he said the will that gave him her entire fortune surprised him because he did not know that Wang's love for him was "so deep."
Interesting news... haha... million of dollars to prolong a life?