Property tycoon Samuel Tak Lee challenges HK$1.4b awarded to son’s ex-wife Florence Tsang Chiu-wing

A court yesterday began hearing an appeal by the billionaire patriarch of the Prudential Enterprise property empire and his son against a judge's decision to award the son's ex-wife a record HK$1.4 billion divorce settlement.

Samuel Tak Lee and son Samathur Li Kin-kan argued that Li's former wife should get just HK$524 million - the amount a judge found she would need to fund the lifestyle she enjoyed during her marriage.

In a cross appeal, Florence Tsang Chiu-wing, who is a solicitor, will argue that she should be awarded half of marital assets, worth HK$6.5 billion.

Samuel Lee is the head of Prudential Enterprise, which has vast global real estate investments and owns the Prudential Hotel in Nathan Road, Jordan.

The case attracted extensive media coverage in 2011 and gave the public a rare glimpse into the extravagance of the seriously rich. The court heard Li lavished more than HK$100 million a year on himself and at one point owned a Boeing business jet, two yachts, 28 cars and millions of dollars' worth of wine.

Their eight-year marriage broke down in 2008 after Tsang refused her husband's demand for an abortion, then discovered he was having an affair.

The case took a twist when the trial judge referred the case to the Department of Justice after he found that the two men had forged a loan agreement that transferred virtually all of the son's assets to his father.