Friday, April 20, 2007

The Two Billion Pound Psychic

If me not having won the lotto in nearly 99 different attempts wasn't proof enough, here comes more evidence that I do not rank very high on God's list of favorite psychics. London's Daily Mail is reporting this story.

It was a stroke of good fortune he probably didn't see coming.

A feng shui master – or Chinese fortune-teller – will inherit the £2 billion fortune of Asia's richest woman.

Nina Wang, the eccentric Hong Kong tycoon, has apparently made Tony Chan Chun-chuen her sole heir.Nicknamed 'little sweetie' for her braided pigtails, mini-skirts and giggly persona, Mrs Wang, 69, died earlier this month from cancer.

Her decision to leave her vast wealth in the hands of an outsider, while shunning her family, is sure to lead to a court challenge.

Media reports had suggested that Mrs Wang, who had no children, had drafted a will in 2002 pledging much of her estate to charity.

But a revised will drafted last year, as she battled cancer, named Canadian-educated Chan, who advised her on feng shui, as the beneficiary, according to the well-placed source.

She reportedly added a clause to the will insisting that he use the wealth he has inherited in a 'good and proper way'.

Mrs Wang, ranked the 154th richest person in the world by Forbes magazine last year, had a life touched by tragedy.

In 1990, her husband Teddy was abducted by gangsters and never seen again. A Triad gang admitted in 2005 that he had been murdered and his body dumped from a boat into the South China Sea.

She stirred controversy by waging a legal war against her father-in-law, Wang Din-shin, to secure her husband's billions - even though he had not been confirmed dead.

Mrs Wang won the eight-year legal battle in 2005, securing full control of the estate and of Hong Kong's largest private property developer, Chinachem group, in a probate saga that captivated the city of seven million with tales of illicit affairs.

When asked whether Chan would get all the money, the source stressed again that he was the 'sole beneficiary' and that all of Mrs Wang's estate, including that of her husband 'gets paid on in sequence' to him. The source would give no further details.

A statement is expected from Mrs Wang’s lawyer today.

Chan, a fortune-teller to the stars, is understood to have been introduced to the businesswoman by a fellow tycoon and to have been involved in her funeral arrangements.

The ceremony was held on Wednesday morning and was attended by politicians and tycoons, including Macao casino magnate Stanley Ho, who arrived at the funeral home in a line of gleaming Rolls-Royces and other luxury cars.

Hundreds of white wreaths lining the pavement filled the air with the scent of flowers while, inside an altar was covered with more blooms.

A heart-shaped wreath of red roses bore Mrs Wang's smiling portrait and a flower-covered hearse transported her body to the crematorium.

In her lifetime, however, Mrs Wang was renowned for her thrift. She and her husband often claimed they had no time to spend money and that they preferred fast food to fine dining.

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