HONG KONG tycoon Nina Wang was told she would live forever if she included her feng shui expert in her will, a court in the territory was told yesterday, as a legal battle raged over the multi-billion-euro fortune of Asia's richest woman.
The flamboyant billionaire, known as Little Sweetie for her love of mini-skirts and pigtails, died of cancer in April last year. Her inheritance has turned into a bitter row because she left two conflicting wills four years apart. Her husband Teddy's family is fighting the claim of Ms Wang's geomancer Tony Chan to inherit the estimated €9.3 billion she left.
"We say he [Mr Chan] lied to the deceased by telling her that performing certain feng shui practices - including putting his name in her will - would ensure that she would live forever, or at least a very long time," barrister Geoffrey Vos, acting for the family, told the territory's High Court.
Feng shui is an ancient Chinese belief based on the idea that the land is a living, breathing thing filled with qi energy, and that individuals should live in harmony with wind and water. It is very popular in Hong Kong.
Mr Chan's barrister accuses the family company Chinachem of withholding medical evidence that would shed light on Ms Wang's state of mind before she died, the South China Morning Post reported.
Also at issue is whether a lawyer and a senior Chinachem executive had each signed a copy of a will that Mr Chan claimed gave him legal title to her estate.
Ms Wang took over her husband's Chinachem business empire in 2005 after a protracted legal battle. He was kidnapped in 1990 and never seen again. His father took Ms Wang to court, claiming she had faked his will. He was not successful, despite evidence that she tampered with it.
Mr Chan is a property developer as well as a feng shui consultant. He is known for flying around Hong Kong in an EC-130 helicopter and owns several properties on the island. He has reportedly advised many of Hong Kong's billionaires on feng shui matters.
Mr Justice Johnson Lam, hearing the case, said he would not have his court turned into a "court of feng shui", but Mr Vos assured the judge that any feng shui references would be aimed at showing whether Mr Chan's advice was legitimate or merely an attempt to gain control of Ms Wang's money.An eight-week hearing is expected to start after Easter next year.