Stanley Ho drops legal action against kin

Stanley Ho drops legal action against kin

Casino tycoon Stanley Ho Hung-sun has droppedlegal action against several family members in the fight to recover his fortune.Ho said he did not "see any point in continuing the legal action" against 11 family members -his second and third wives and their children.The 89-year-old billionaire revealed this on Sunday night after several family meetings following the dispute last week.Ho has four wives - Clementina Leitao, Lucina Nam King-ying, Ina Chan Un-chan and Angela Leong On-kei - and 17 children.Earlier, three of Ho's families agreed to an equal split of his fortune but Chan opposed to it.

Last Monday, SJM Holdings of Ho announced that he had transferred his stake of some HK$13.3bil (RM5,22bil) in STDM to Lanceford Co, shared by the families of Chan and Nam.

STDM is the parent company of SJM.

Ho filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the two families, accusing them of trying to steal his casino empire.

After that, a meeting took place between Ho and the four families.

They agreed in principle that the Lanceford interests would be equally distributed among the families.

Ho'slawyer Gordon Oldham, who went to see himSunday night, reiterated that the King of Gambling reaffirmed his wishes to equally distribute his wealth among the four families.

Themagnatewas ranked the 13th richest man in Hong Kong, with a net worth of US$3.1bil (RM9.5bil), last year.
Source: The Standard

Published Jan 31 2011