Little Sweetie’s Fairy Tale Life, with Some Bumps along the Way

A rundown of important dates and events in Nin Wang's troubled fairy tale life

1955 – On her birthday, 18-year old Nina Kung Yu-Sum marries Teddy Wang Teh Huei, 21, whom she started dating at age 11. Teddy’s mother is not happy with the match.

1960 – A sickly Teddy makes a will bequeathing equal shares of his property firm, Chinachem to Nina and his dad, Din-shin.

1963 – Teddy gives Nina power of attorney to run the show in his absence

1968 – Teddy discovers Nina’s alleged affair with a business associate, a warehouse manager. In anger, he makes a new will with his father as sole beneficiary.

1983 – Teddy and Nina are kidnapped. Nina is released first and paid an $11 million ransom to free her husband, who is chained to a bedpost for eight days. The couple had promised not to go after the kidnappers but rescind their words. The kidnappers are arrested.

1990 – Teddy is kidnapped again. Nina pays $34 million but Teddy is never seen again.

1994 – Six people are convicted and jailed for the 1990 kidnapping. The mastermind, a retired police inspector, escaped to China.

1995 – Fund-raising started to build a war chest for Wang Din-shin to wrest control of Chinachem from Nina

1997 –

May: Seven years after Teddy’s disappearance, Wang Din-shin goes to court to have him declared dead so probate can begin.

June: Secret meetings at the Miramar Hotel for the war chest. Contributors are promised a return of 20 times on their investment.

August: Movie stars, tycoons and others chip in HK$80 million. They expect HK$1.6 billion in return.

1998 – One of the six kidnappers claim Teddy was pushed overboard when a police patrol boat came too near to the junk which held him captive.

1999-

January: Nina claims a sealed envelope held by the court could hold Teddy’s last will naming her as sole beneficiary. She says Teddy wrote the will after a horse riding accident in March, a month before his second kidnapping.

September: The court declared Teddy legally dead. This set the stage for probate to begin.

2000 – June: Nina is blackmailed by two lawyers who claim they know the 1990 will is false. She promptly reports them to the police. The lawyers are caught and jailed.

2001 – August: The beginning of Hong Kong’s most expensive probate hearing, which was to last 172 days. The 90-year old Din-shin took the stand as witness. Nina confessed her extra-marital affair with the warehouse manager.

2002 –

July: Reports of Wang Din-shin’s financial backers hit the Hong Kong media, with Nina’s personal assistance. All those named deny their involvement.

November: High Court Judge David Yam rules against Nina and finds the 1990 will a forgery. She files an appeal.

December: Nina is arrested for allegedly forgery, and is let out on HK$15 million bail.

2004 –

June – Nina loses the appeal in a two-to-one Court of Appeal hearing. She files a second appeal.

July – the Wang Din-shin war chest, boosted by two rounds of success and the lengthy lawsuit, grows to HK$150 million. Contributors sell their entitlements of future returns like shares in the stock market.

2005

January – Nina is officially charged for forgery. She is released on a cash bail of HK$55 million.

June – The final tally of the Wang Din-shin war chest stands at HK$230 million. Contributors are getting ready to reap a huge windfall.

Sept 16 – Bombshell. The five judges of the Court of Final Appeal find the 1990 will to be authentic. They reverse two previous verdicts of the lower courts and give Nina control of the HK$40 billion Chinachem. The Wang Din-shin camp is in disarray. It is not clear who will compensate the contributors or whether they will be compensated at all.