Ex-feng shui master jailed for forging billionaire widow’s will

Hong Kong: A charlatan who claimed to be the lover of a late Hong Kong billionaire was jailed on Friday for 12 years after a court convicted him of forging her will in a bid to steal her fortune.

Bartender-turned-feng shui master Tony Chan had claimed to be the sole beneficiary of Nina Wangs $13 billion (Dh48 billion) estate, which she inherited after the kidnapping and disappearance of her property mogul husband.

A court had ruled in 2010 three years after Wangs death that a will in Chans possession was fake and after more than 20 hours of deliberation, a jury on Thursday found him guilty of forging the document.

Sentencing the 53-year-old, judge Andrew Macrae on Friday described his conduct as shameless and wicked as well as borne of unparalleled greed.

Forgery of a will is particularly nasty and insidious, said Macrae, as the deceased cant answer back.

You are no doubt a clever, and no doubt beguiling charlatan, the judge said, describing his actions as cruel and egregious.

Chan lowered his head into his hands when the sentence was read out before a courtroom packed with reporters and smiled as he left the dock.

The case has for years gripped the former British colony and generated blanket media coverage, with Chan often cast as a fraudster who duped Wang by promising to find her kidnapped husband and cure her of cancer.

Much of the case revolved around Chans claims that he and Wang were lovers and that she promised to leave him everything. During the trial, his lawyers showed a home video of the pair in a passionate embrace.

But the court heard that Chan was a grasping chancer who, despite earning HK$3 billion (Dh1.4 billion) for his feng shui services from Wang, was not content and wanted to take over her entire business empire and fortune.

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Ex-feng shui master jailed for forging billionaire widow’s will