Billionaire Eric Hotung ‘more occupied with love-making’ than intentions for trust fund, Hong Kong court hears
Second day of philanthropist’s testimony centred on a 2010 deed stipulating return of money given on trust to Winnie Ho to help brother’s gaming business
Billionaire Eric Hotung told the High Court today he was more occupied with love-making than informing his secret lover Winnie Ho Yuen-ki about his intentions for a trust fund he had given her.
The 90-year-old philanthropist is suing Ho over the HK$2 million he purportedly handed to her on trust to invest in her brother Stanley Ho Hung-sun’s then-fledgling gaming business at the start of the 1960s
Ho, however, claimed she had paid her past lover back an amount of HK$1.6 million.
The second day of Hotung’s testimony centred on a deed of assignment, dated back to 2010, which the philanthropist drafted stipulating that the trust amount be returned to his own firm. The deed included a clause that Ho had to be notified.
Cross-examining Hotung, senior counsel Edward Chan King-sang, for Ho, asked whether he had ever told Ho about his intentions.
“We were occupied with more important things,” he said, before adding love-making, and reminiscing about a time when there was no friction between him and Ho.
The court also heard how Ho went with her father to Ho Chi Minh City, where she learned about the gambling business.
