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.
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“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.”
Speaking after the hearing, Peter Chan said the order would not affect him, as his life was already constrained by his lack of funds and credit card, adding 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 before leaving in a taxi with two others.
Chan first made headlines days after Wang’s death in April 2007.
Foundation files bankruptcy petition against Nina Wang’s former ‘lover’ Peter Chan
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.
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