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Court rules against Asia's richest woman
2002-11-21
HONG KONG - A Hong Kong court ruled on Thursday that a will that made local businesswoman Nina Wang Asia's richest woman was a forgery, paving the way for the return of her late husband's multi-billion dollar estate to his father.Hours after the verdict, a police spokesman said they were investigating the case. A spokeswoman for Nina's lawyers said there would be an appeal. The ruling wrapped up the most colourful and longest probate case in Hong Kong's history, a marathon 171-day hearing studded with tales of adultery, kidnapping and murder. The case centred on Teddy Wang's estate and a handwritten will which Nina says her husband penned in March 1990, a month before he was kidnapped and never seen again. The will bequeathed his entire estate to her. The exact value of Teddy's estate is not known. However, Forbes magazine this year estimated Nina's fortune at US$2.4 billion (HK$18.7 billion), with the company her husband left behind making up the bulk of it. Nina, nicknamed "Little Sweetie" by the media and renowned for her pigtails and quirky sense of dress, was absent during the entire hearing. Teddy was declared legally dead in September 1999 and his father, Wang Din-shin, began a civil suit to claim the estate. He asserted the 1990 will was forged and asked the court to recognise a 1968 will bequeathing Teddy's entire estate to him. The 1990 will, which purports to carry the signatures of Teddy and witness Tse Ping-yim, named Nina sole executor and beneficiary of Teddy's entire estate, including Chinachem Group, Hong Kong's largest private property developer. "I have no doubt that the questioned signatures of Wang and Tse are forged signatures and the 1990 documents are forged documents," Judge David Yam wrote in his 558-page verdict. The court ordered Nina to pay 85 percent of Wang senior's legal costs. Nina, who hired a top-notch legal team to protect her billions, is believed to be facing a bill which already runs into tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars. CHILDHOOD SWEETHEARTS Lurid accusations of adultery and betrayal from the court hearing enthralled Hong Kongers, who devoured every sensational detail through newspapers and magazines. Teddy and Nina began innocently enough as childhood sweethearts in old Shanghai, where their well-to-do families were bound by business ties, the court heard. She followed Teddy to Hong Kong in 1955 and married him when she was just 18. During the acrimonious court battle, Nina's lawyer described their years together as almost a fairytale and said they remained madly in love into middle age. Teddy's father told the court a far different story. The 90-year-old man told the court the marriage turned sour in 1968 when Teddy accused Nina of having an affair. Teddy, who had by then turned into a fabulously successful property developer, rescinded a will he had made in 1960 which divided his estate equally between Nina and his father. He drew up a new will giving his father everything, the court heard. After Teddy was declared dead, Nina said she was actually the sole beneficiary of his billions, and produced a will she said her husband had penned in 1990. Contents of that will were studiously examined during the hearing by handwriting experts, who even resorted to inkdating techniques to estimate when it could have been written. But the judge said the will provided by Nina was suspicious. "Why should Teddy make a home-made will instead of making a proper will by solicitors as he had done before in 1960 and 1968?" Justice Yam asked. "Why should Teddy make Document D with the words 'One life one love' when the evidence before the court suggested that Teddy was not a romantic person at all?" Reuters
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