Hong Kong police today lodged forgery charges today against a feng shui master who tried to inherit the multibillion-dollar fortune of late developer Nina Wang. Tony Chan Chun-chuen appeared in a Hong Kong court and he was freed after his brother posted a bond of $2.6 million. Chan was arrested in February last year after a court ruled that a will purportedly leaving Wang's estate to him was a forgery; it declared as valid a will from 2002 that left Wang's estate to a charity that she and her late husband founded in 1988.
Wang, once Asia's richest woman, died of cancer in 2007 at age 69. Her fortune held through her private Chinachem Group has been estimated at around $12.8 billion. Chan said during the trial last year that he and Wang were in love, sharing a passion for cooking, travel, and feng shui—the Chinese art of arranging objects and choosing dates to improve luck. The bitter dispute, which pitted Chan against the charity run by Wang's family, fascinated Hong Kongers with its juicy revelations of Chan's affair with Wang, who was nicknamed "Little Sweetie" for her girlish outfits and pigtail hairdo. (More Nina Wang stories.)