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Bros , anyone know this Singaporean man : Mr Lionel Lau, 38 ????
Man to fight for share of tycoon's estate
SourceStraits Times
Date24 Feb 2012
Author K. C. Vijayan
A SINGAPOREAN man will get to fight for his share of a
dead tycoon's HK$6 billion (S$970 million) estate, even though he was not named as a beneficiary in the will.
Hong Kong judge Azizul Suffiad held on Monday that
Mr Lionel Lau, 38, had provided sufficient grounds to prove that he was the tycoon's biological son - he was born out of wedlock - to get a copy of the will to start his probate fight.
Probate is the legal process of administering a dead person's estate and settling all claims.
The executor of the will - the tycoon's nephew - had moved to set aside Mr Lau's court application in Hong Kong for a copy of the document since the latter was not a beneficiary in the will.
Malaysian tycoon and philanthropist Lau Gek Poh died in 2008 at age 92.
In Hong Kong, he owned 60 per cent of shares in Lei Shing Hong, a firm with businesses in Vietnam, Korea and Singapore among others. His assets in the company were worth HK$6 billion. He also had other assets in Malaysia, Singapore and elsewhere.
He is survived by his Malaysian wife Khoo Geuh Noi and their daughter Vivian Liew.
The court was told he had a longstanding relationship with a Madam Lum Sook Chun, who gave birth to Mr Lau in 1973.
The latter filed his Singaporean birth certificate in court which he said entitled him to get a copy of the will and take advice to ensure the estate was properly administered.
The will executor claimed that Mr Lau had failed to prove he was the biological son of the tycoon.
He pointed out there were two birth certificates, one showing that Mr Lau was born in Singapore on Dec 4, 1973, and the other indicating that the birth took place a day earlier in Sabah, Malaysia.
There were also discrepancies in the spelling of the name on the certificates. He added that Mr Lau had two passports - one Singaporean and one Malaysian.
But the court accepted that the Chinese surname could be spelt as Lau or Liew in Singapore and Malaysia due to different dialect pronunciations. It noted that the tycoon's daughter was called Vivian Liew.
Mr Lau confirmed that he was not born in Sabah and that the detail in the Malaysian birth certificate was incorrect, but he pointed out that the will executor had always been aware he was the tycoon's natural son.
He had worked for the tycoon's business empire and the latter had always introduced Mr Lau as his son and Madam Lum as the wife.
Mr Lau further provided details of his upbringing, schooling and addresses where he lived with his mother and the tycoon. The latter had bought two houses in Singapore in Upper East Coast Road and Jalan Lateh in 1988 where Madam Lum used to live.
It also emerged that the executor had never told Mr Lau he was not a beneficiary of the estate.
The judge held that the evidence showed Mr Lau was the biological son. The judge noted that almost four years had elapsed since the tycoon died and no probate had been obtained on the will by the executor and no steps had been taken in that direction.
There was also no indication when the tycoon executed the will or if there was a document that pre-dated the will. These were questions for a court of law to settle and if for any reason part of the estate falls outside the will, then Mr Lau could claim a share, said the judge.
He pointed out that Hong Kong laws, unlike Malaysian ones, allowed for an illegitimate son to be a beneficiary, even if he was not named as one in the will.
The court ordered the will to be produced within eight days. Lawyers for the executor are appealing next week for the order to be stayed.
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Source: Straits Times
