Envelope may contain missing billionaire's last will, says wife
A mysterious sealed envelope may contain missing billionaire Teddy Wang Teh-huei's last wishes.
The tycoon's wife said she had reason to believe her husband's last will was in the envelope along with 'documents of a highly private nature' which he did not want to be made public until after his death.
Nina Wang, 60, insists her husband, who has been missing since being kidnapped in 1990 at the age of 57, is still alive.
She and her father-in-law, Wang Din-shin, have been embroiled in a long-running legal battle for the control of his fortune.
A Court of Appeal hearing was held yesterday to determine whether the case could continue without the tycoon being declared legally dead.
Mrs Wang was cut out of her husband's last known will in 1968. She claimed the billionaire might have drafted a new one after he was involved in a riding accident shortly before the kidnapping.
Barrister Warren Chan SC, for Mr Wang Snr, asked that the envelope either remain in the care of the courts, where it has been since the middle of last year, or be sealed in a bank vault.
'It would be in the interest of justice that the envelope not be returned to the wife,' Mr Chan said.
But Adrian Huggins SC, for Mrs Wang, disagreed. 'With no evidential foundation whatsoever, he says, 'If it's a will it's a fake, and she's forged it',' he said.
Mrs Wang took over the chairmanship of her husband's company, Chinachem, after he vanished in 1990.
The wrangle over his estate ground to a halt in June when Mr Justice Gerald Godfrey, Mr Justice Barry Mortimer and Mr Justice Anthony Rogers discovered that the probate case was 'misconceived' from the outset because Wang had not been declared legally dead.
Mr Chan said yesterday the proceedings could be saved if the court would allow them to be halted so the father was allowed to make a sworn statement confirming his son's death.
The judges dismissed the case, suggesting Mr Wang formalise the issue of his son's death and start again.
