Legal row over assets of late tycoon William Mong Man-wai
Rice-cooker king's first wife accused of trying to undermine entitlement, under William Mong Man-wai's will, for the billionaire's second wife
The second wife of late rice-cooker tycoon William Mong Man-wai has accused the billionaire's divorced first wife of trying to destroy her entitlement under Mong's will.
Lawyers for the widow, Wong Pui-fan, told the Court of Appeal yesterday that the founder of Shun Hing Group made "generous provision" for her and their daughter, Perlie Mong Pui-yee.
But British barrister Gilead Cooper QC, for Wong, said first wife Serena Yang Hsueh-chi had been trying to destroy this "through the control of Shun Hing".
The court heard that Mong, who died in 2010, set up a trust in the British Virgin Islands, naming Wong and her family as the beneficiaries.
Four Shun Hing subsidiaries and a related firm sued Mong's estate for about HK$1.9 billion in debt in April. The companies said Mong took the money from Shun Hing without proper authority, or that it had been extended in the form of loans between 2002, the year of his high-profile divorce, and his death.
Records also showed that Yang, her three daughters and two sons filed a writ last year asking the court to declare they were entitled to the Huge Surplus Trust, which holds 50 per cent of Shun Hing Holdings - one of Mong's many companies.
Wong's lawyers were appealing against a court order that allowed the executors of Mong's estate to draw funds from the estate to oppose Wong's request for documents relating to Mong's divorce. Bank of East Asia chairman David Li Kwok-po and lawyer Vic Choi Fan-keung are the executors.