When Hong Kong’s richest man Li Ka-shing was caught up in a legal battle over a contested will in 1995
- When Nicholas Marsh died in 1988, he left his estate, worth US$150 million at the time, to be managed by the Bank of New York
- His daughter Adrienne Lefkowitz complained about the bank, and especially about the handling of assets connected to the deceased’s old friend Li Ka-shing
“An American heiress whose father was a close friend of tycoon Li Ka-shing yesterday accused the Bank of New York of negligence in managing the family estate said to be worth up to US$150 million.”
Thus began, as reported in the South China Morning Post on November 3, 1995, the public saga of one of Hong Kong’s wealthiest people being accused of some serious siphoning.
“Adrienne Lefkowitz is seeking an order at the High Court to have the bank replaced by new trustees to sort out her father’s estate and search for the remaining Hong Kong assets,” the Post reported. “Under [the will of her father, Nicholas Marsh] the multimillionaire is entitled to 30 per cent of her father’s fortune […] but Mrs Lefkowitz, 50, says the trustees have only recovered a fraction of his assets. Her main complaint is the bank’s failure to chase her father’s assets connected with Mr Li.”
A year later, the Post reported that “Nicholas Marsh died on March 15, 1988, in New York. From his deathbed, he sent a message to the Hong Kong billionaire, an old friend, via Mr Li’s son Victor. Mr Li told the court he had been instructed by Marsh to use his own judgment when deciding what to do with the money.
“‘He said ‘your father can give the money to anyone in the world, but not a penny to my wife’. […] Asked why Marsh had entrusted him with his fortune, Mr Li replied: ‘People trust me. It’s just my luck’.”
