Hong Kong court finds comedy legend Stephen Chow does not owe ex millions in investment commissions
- Chow is not obliged to pay his ex-girlfriend HK$70 million in commissions on investment gains, court rules
- Star’s ex, Alice Yu, argued that Chow had agreed to pay her fees for her help as a consultant
The High Court has sided with Hong Kong “king of comedy” Stephen Chow Sing-chi in his eight-year legal feud with an ex-girlfriend who sued him for HK$70 million (US$9 million) in investment “commissions”.
Alice Yu Man-fung took the Shaolin Soccer star to court two years after their break-up in 2010, claiming they had made an oral agreement some time around Christmas 2002 for Chow to pay her a 10 per cent share of net profits on all successful investments she recommended.
Her claims covered Chow’s current luxury home at 12 Pollock’s Path on The Peak – one of the four houses he developed upon acquiring the plot – valued at HK$911 million in December 2011, as well as three properties in a development in Tai Po known as The Beverly Hills and an investment in a private equity fund.
Chow, whose name was spelled Chiau in court documents, did not dispute that there was an offer to share profits, but said it was just a monetary gift made “out of love” when they were chatting over a glass of wine on the balcony of his home on The Peak one night after dinner in 2002.
His defence counsel, Bernard Man SC, questioned the legal effect of this verbal promise made between lovers on a convivial occasion, while Yu’s counsel, Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung SC, stressed the couple had a commercial relationship parallel to their 13-year romance.