Forgery trial of self-styled fung shui master Peter Chan begins
Reporting restrictions imposed as former fung shui master faces charges over billion-dollar estate
The forgery trial of the fung shui guru-turned-Christian Peter Chan Chun-chuen began yesterday but the judge ordered some of the proceedings kept under wraps.
Chan appeared in the Court of First Instance accused of forging a will he claimed to be from late Chinachem chairwoman Nina Wang Kung Yu-sum in order to claim her multibillion fortune.
Chan, 52, who changed his name from Tony after a recent conversion to Christianity, is charged with forgery and using a false instrument.
In the trial, which is set to last 60 days, the court will deal first with legal arguments raised by defence counsel Andrew Kan and Anita Wong. The substantive trial before jury will start on May 22. There was no jury yesterday.
Before the trial began, Mr Justice Andrew Macrae barred reporting of the legal arguments, but the public and the press were not excluded. The charges relate to a purported will produced during the legal battle over Wang's estimated HK$80 billion estate, which eventually went to the Chinachem Charitable Foundation.
Wang was Asia's richest woman when she died of cancer in April 2007 at the age of 69. Chan, who claims to have been Wang's lover, was accompanied at the hearing by his wife Tam Miu-ching, his daughter Polly Lon Pui-chun and his younger brother Ricky Chan Chun-kwok.