Trust fund 'alien concept' for Nina Wang, says Chinachem foundation lawyer
Charitable foundation says the businesswoman wouldn't have wanted foreign concept imposed on her fortune as siblings offer plan for estate
The late Nina Wang Kung Yu-sum, a Chinese businesswoman, intended to give her fortune to Chinachem Charitable Foundation absolutely, not on trust, and there was no evidence that she knew what a trust was, a court heard yesterday.
Frank Hinks QC, a lawyer for the foundation, was speaking at the Court of First Instance on the second day of a three-day hearing to determine how Wang's will should be read.
"There is no indication she had any conception what a trust is," Hinks said. "A trust is originally an English concept … but to a Chinese businesswoman, it is a foreign concept, an alien concept. There is no reason to believe she would have wanted such an alien concept to be imposed on her estate."
Wang, the late Chinachem group chairwoman once thought to be Asia's richest woman, died of cancer in April 2007, aged 69. Her estate is currently estimated at HK$83 billion.
The foundation and the secretary for justice disagree on how Wang's will should be read and have asked the Court of First Instance for a ruling.
The secretary has a role as protector of charities, and under the Trustee Ordinance has the power to act if there is a breach of a charitable trust or if there is a need for better administration of it. The secretary and foundation disagree over whether Wang left her estate to the latter as a gift free of obligations or on trust. The secretary says it was left to the foundation to hold as trustee to carry out Wang's wishes, but the foundation says it was a gift.