Convicted forger Peter Chan Chun-chuen has been declared bankrupt for failing to pay HK$28.4 million (US$3.6 million) in legal fees owed to the charitable foundation of late tycoon Nina Wang Kung Yu-sum after the civil suit that determined he had faked her will. Madam Justice Linda Chan Ching-fan on Thursday granted a bankruptcy order petitioned by the Chinachem Charitable Foundation, despite objections from Peter Chan, a former feng shui master who changed his name from Tony and later converted to Christianity after being jailed in 2013. The High Court heard the HK$28.4 million was the unpaid balance of a cost order made by the court in the wills proceedings back in 2010 and 2011. “This is an appropriate case for the court to make a bankruptcy order against the debtor,” the judge said. “There is no dispute that the debtor has no financial means to repay the debt.” She also ordered him to pay the foundation’s costs in these proceedings. Speaking after the hearing, Peter Chan maintained he was wrongfully jailed and would not rule out an appeal against the latest court order, but said bankruptcy would not affect him, as his life was already constrained by his lack of funds and credit card and he could not lose any more face. “I’m already at my lowest point, I have nothing left since I was released from prison,” the 61-year-old told reporters. “The bankruptcy order means I can start a clean slate, it may not be a bad thing,” he added, before leaving in a taxi with two others. Foundation files bankruptcy petition against Nina Wang’s former ‘lover’ Peter Chan Chan is currently staying with a family friend and relying on his siblings for financial support, but has no plans to start working soon as he intends to focus on clearing his name – this time in mainland China after exhausting all legal channels in Hong Kong. He said the Xiamen Siming People’s Court would hear his case against the foundation on November 12. He has two remaining properties, jointly owned by his wife, who has reportedly refused to sell her interest as she is still living there with his in-laws. His other creditors include the joint administrators of Wang’s estate and the commissioner of inland revenue, who has demanded HK$300 million in tax and penalty charges. Chan first made headlines days after Wang’s death in April 2007. He identified himself as the billionaire’s lover, and later asked the court to appoint him as the sole heir to her HK$83 billion (US$10.6 billion) estate, claiming he had a will made by Wang, boss of the Chinachem Group and once Asia’s richest woman, in October 2006. But her charitable foundation, led by Wang’s brother, Kung Yan-sum, argued the will was a forgery. A key witness, lawyer Winfield Wong Wing-cheung, said he witnessed only a “partial will” signed by Wang in 2006, amounting to a sum of about HK$10 million. Early prison release for former Hong Kong feng shui master Peter Chan After a lengthy legal battle, which included testimony from handwriting experts, the court in 2010 found the 2006 will was forged and the foundation was awarded the estate. In 2011, Chan lost his final appeal at Hong Kong’s top court over his claim. The ruling led to Chan’s 2013 prosecution for forgery. Later that year, a High Court jury convicted Chan of one count of forgery and another of using a false document, with the judge jailing him for 12 years. In 2016, the appeal court refused to grant him permission to challenge his conviction at the top court. He was let out early last month for good behaviour, after serving eight years in maximum security Stanley Prison. On Thursday, Chan appeared without legal representation because he had no money to retain his lawyers at Bough & Co and did not complete his legal aid application in time. He opposed the petition, saying he had already paid nearly half the costs while in prison and was willing to make further payments. But he also noted the foundation had filed the petition “in no time” last year after acknowledging service of his Xiamen case – handled by his mainland lawyers acting pro bono – which he “strongly believed” would prove his innocence. “In the mainland court, there will be a most important resolution that will prove my innocence and that, at the time, the Chinachem Charitable Foundation broke the law,” he said. Chan urged the court to give him more time to wait for those proceedings, apply for legal aid in respect of this petition and lobby his wife to sell her interest in their properties so he could make payments. But the judge sided with the foundation in finding Chan’s accusations were bare assertions that had nothing to do with and would not impinge on the validity of the rulings in the wills proceedings. She also noted it was within the creditor’s right to enforce the debt in 12 years, and further observed that Chan could not have raised sufficient funds to pay the foundation, the joint administrators and the commissioner even if his wife had agreed to sell her interest.