Monks fight over HK$26.8m trust
For Buddhists who supposedly renounce all worldly goods, three monks are involved in the most ungodly of legal squabbles to gain control of a multimillion-dollar trust left by a revered monk.
The Reverend Ip So-kwong left a total of HK$26.8 million in the form of fixed and savings deposits in Hong Kong dollars and foreign currencies.
The trust also includes cash, gold coins and jewellery left in two safe deposit boxes that were valued at HK$1.66 million in 1992. Ip died on October 17, 1989.
In a writ filed in the High Court on Friday, two of his disciples - the Reverend Ng Siu-quing, also known as Yuan Jiong, the deputy chairman of the Buddhist Association of Macau, and Chow Chi-ming - are seeking to be appointed administrators of the trust.
The two are seeking to remove Ko Oi-chi as a co-trustee of the estate and also want the government to recognise the trust as a public charitable trust.
The present action is the second case brought before the High Court in connection to the estate.
In 1994, a woman filed an action in what was then the Supreme Court, seeking an order to force Ko Oi-chi, Ng Siu-quing and Chow Chi-ming to release property they held in trust for Ip.
