Tony Chan's defeat to cost him home
Self-styled fung shui master Tony Chan Chun-chuen plans to move out of his luxury home on The Peak after losing his fight for the late Nina Wang Kung Yu-sum's HK$50 billion estate.
Chan's four-year struggle with the Chinachem Charitable Foundation ended when the Court of Final Appeal dismissed his application on Monday.
But he may now have to pay a big chunk of Chinachem's HK$200 million legal fees on top of his own.
He is also charged with forging the 2006 will in which he claims Wang offered him the estate, and faces having to pay even more court costs.
To economise, the 52-year-old will stop renting a 5,000 sq ft detached house - with a garden and a swimming pool - on Gough Hill Road, where he is a neighbour of Pansy Ho Chiu-king, the daughter of tycoon Stanley Ho, and Richard Li Tzar-kai, the son of Li Ka-shing, the city's richest man.
Chan is now looking for alternatives in Southern district and might move by the end of this year, he said.
Before the legal battle started, in which the foundation claimed it was the beneficiary under a 2002 will, the two parties met in the Four Seasons Hotel, Chan alleged. 'Chinachem Charitable Foundation proposed to take 70 per cent of the estate, while I would get 30 per cent,' he said.
'Was the negotiation halted when someone failed to secure his own interest? I do not have an answer to that.'
Chan claimed he never wanted Wang to bequeath him her estate.
But after Wang died at the age of 69 in 2007, Chan started the legal battle he insisted was simply to execute her last wishes.
He added on Monday's ruling: 'We should keep our eyes wide open and see if all the money in the foundation is used on charities.'
Chan is due to appear in Eastern Court on November 25 for proceedings to bring his criminal case to the High Court.
He was charged in late May with forgery and using a false instrument and released on HK$20 million bail and a HK$20 million surety provided by his brother.
