Tycoons in 'charade' to defeat assets claim, ex-wife's lawyers say
Property chief and son schemed to prevent ex-wife from getting marital assets, say lawyers for woman who won HK$1.4 billion settlement
A woman who was awarded a record HK$1.4 billion in a divorce settlement said the payment should be increased to more than HK$3 billion because of the "gross conduct" of her ex-husband and his father, the billionaire patriarch of the Prudential Enterprise property empire.
In the Court of Appeal, lawyers for Florence Tsang Chiu-wing said a claim by her former father-in-law Samuel Tak Lee that he had the right to buy his son's billion-dollar property business at a nominal price was nothing but a "charade".
The scheme was created to absorb almost all of the son Samathur Li Kin-kan's assets in order to defeat Tsang's claim, her lawyers said.
They said the trial judge was wrong to have denied Tsang the right to argue against the father and son's "gross conduct", and that his decision to award just 20 per cent of the marital assets, worth HK$6.5 billion, was flawed.
It was the third day of an appeal brought by the father and son who want the settlement decreased to HK$524 million - the amount a judge found she would need to fund the lifestyle she enjoyed during her marriage.
Tsang is rejecting their offer and in a cross-appeal is arguing that she should get half of the assets.
The pair's eight-year marriage broke down in 2008 after Tsang refused her husband's demand for an abortion, then discovered he was having an affair.