A lawyer for fung shui master Tony Chan Chun-chuen asked a court yesterday to order the Chinachem Charitable Foundation to disclose the identity of the donors who footed its HK$141 million legal bill against his client.
Chan's lawyer, Alexander Stock, told the High Court the foundation had committed 'maintenance' - where a third party intervenes to encourage a lawsuit - and 'champerty', when a person funds a case to win a portion of the compensation.
The Court of Final Appeal ruled in 2007 that the prohibition of champerty and maintenance still applied in Hong Kong, the only common law jurisdiction where the two offences still exist.
Chan was ordered last April to pay the foundation's costs after a judge ruled in a probate trial over the late tycoon Nina Wang Kung Yu-sum's fortune that her 2006 will was forged. That will bequeathed Chan her entire estate.
On Thursday, Chan was charged with forgery and using a false instrument. He was released after paying HK$3 million of his HK$20 million bail. His brother, Bobby Chan Chun-hung, yesterday handed over bank drafts of the remaining sum in Eastern Court.
Stock asked the foundation to disclose the donors' identities, bank statements of donations, and retainer agreements with solicitors in support of Chan's objection to paying HK$111 million of the bill. Chan did not dispute the remaining HK$30 million.
In 2008, the foundation received a small amount in donations, but they jumped to HK$97 million in the following year, Stock said. From 2007 to 2009, the foundation also received HK$132 million in donations and HK$64 million in 'loans' or quasi-donations, where repayment by the foundation is discretionary. 'It seems that the sum effectively enabled the trial to go ahead,' he said.
