Stanley Ho Hung-sun may be suing a slew of relatives for 'improperly and/or illegally' seizing control of his gambling empire, but lawyers and lawmakers say the government has little ground for interfering in the family power struggle.
There is no real role for the government to play, they said, even though lawyer Gordon Oldham yesterday said that Ho had been 'pressurised' into making a statement on television in which he said that everything was back in order and that he would not be suing anyone. Ho made the statement in a TVB interview on Wednesday.
Barrister and lawmaker Ronny Tong Ka-wah said he did not see any criminal factor that would warrant government or police action. 'Most of the time, when we have to make a decision, we are pressurised to do so,' Tong said yesterday. 'But then it does not mean that it is against the law - unless we are blackmailed into making the decision - that we are threatened to do something.'
Even though Ho's family appeared to be battling for control of the billions of dollars of assets, Tong said what mattered legally was neither whether Ho had changed his mind about allotting his estate nor how he wanted to split the assets. 'The most important question is only, whatever decision he made and whenever he made it, whether or not he really intended to do so and if he was mentally competent at that time.'
James To Kun-sun, chairman of the Legislative Council's security panel, said the incident was simply another 'asset wrestling' case in the city, and not worth government or police intervention.
'Each of the family members is so rich that they all have plenty of legal advisers behind them,' To said. 'If there is anything that they consider involves criminal elements and jeopardises their benefits, they would have reported to the police immediately on their own already.'
