'She asked me whether it's possible to get Teddy back by using feng shui,' Chan told the court. -- PHOTO: AP
HONG KONG - A HONG Kong bartender-turned-soothsayer fighting for the US$13 billion (S$19 billion) estate of Nina Wang told a court on Thursday the tycoon had asked if she could get her kidnapped husband back using feng shui.
LAWYERS for the firm spent the day testing Chan's credibility and casting doubt on his knowledge of feng shui.
Chan denied claims that he had advised Wang to burn real banknotes in the special feng shui holes dug in several properties of the tycoon's Chinachem empire.
On his second day of testimony in the epic court battle, feng shui master Tony Chan said Wang asked him on their first meeting in 1992 if he could help her locate her husband Teddy Wang.
'She asked me whether it's possible to get Teddy back by using feng shui,' Chan told the court.
Teddy Wang's body was never found after he was kidnapped for the second time in 1990. He was declared legally dead in 1999.
However, Lawrence Lok, lawyer for Chinachem Charitable Foundation, which has challenged Chan's claim to Wang's fortune, said the feng shui master had told others that he believed Wang's husband was still alive.
'I put it to you that you told Gilbert Leung (a Chan client), that according to your feng shui findings you had worked out that Mr Wang was still alive, and... that Mr Wang was injured and he was in the eastern part of Hong Kong waters,' Mr Lok asked the feng shui master.
Chan denied the allegation, and said he recalled telling Wang that it would be difficult to find her husband after such a long time, but that he could help her improve her luck by using his feng shui knowledge. Chan conceded that he wanted Wang to be his client and did not want to make her unhappy. But he added that he also did not want to give her false hope.
The ancient Chinese system of channelling energy is extremely popular in Hong Kong and experts can charge huge sums for advice. Wang became fascinated with the system in the years before she died, the court has heard.
Hong Kong's High Court will decide whether Wang, who at one stage was Asia's richest woman, left her entire fortune to Chan when she died of cancer in 2007 aged 69.
The Chinachem Charitable Foundation, which is now controlled by her siblings, says a will awarding Chan the huge fortune is a fake. -- AFP
