Mike on Crime

Dikky Sinn, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

HONG KONG – The alleged lover of Asia’s richest woman testified Tuesday that a pigtail given to him by the late real estate tycoon proves their relationship, an assertion that heats up the court battle over her estate.

The pigtails were a trademark of the late Nina Wang, who died of cancer at age 69 in 2007. Her multibillion-dollar estate is now the centre of a sensational legal battle in Hong Kong between feng shui adviser Tony Chan Chun-chuen, who claims the two were lovers, and the Chinachem Charitable Foundation set up by Wang and her late husband.

Chan – who took the stand Tuesday for a fifth day – claims he was romantically involved with Wang and that she left her fortune to him in an October 2006 will. But the foundation holds a July 2002 will that bequeaths Wang’s estate to the charity.

The foundation’s lawyer, Lawrence Lok, asked Chan during cross-examination if Wang had given him one of her pigtails in order to perform a feng shui ritual, which Wang believed could prolong her life.

Chan, 49, denied it was used for the ritual, insisting it was “proof of our relationship.”

Lok also asked Chan why he kept video and audio recordings of the two, accusing Chan of wanting to use the tapes to blackmail Wang if their relationship ended.

Chan again denied the lawyer’s claim, saying Lok was “framing” him. He later added he thought he had destroyed the many recordings – in line with Wang’s instructions – but later found several which he presented as evidence in the case.

The recordings were not shown in court, though transcripts indicated that one tape showed their visit to a temple. It was not known what was contained on the other tapes.

Wang – one of territory’s most colorful people – inherited her husband’s fortune after an eight-year court battle against her father-in-law.

Her husband was abducted in 1990, and though the family paid US$33 million in ransom, he was never released and his body never found. Wang went on to build her husband’s company, Chinachem, into a massive property developer.

In 2007, Forbes magazine ranked her as the world’s No. 204 richest person with a fortune of US$4.2 billion, but it is not clear how much her estate is currently worth.