正
在轰轰烈烈上演的赌王何鸿�(Stanley Ho)的家族纷争可谓豪门家产继承纠纷最为戏剧化的一个案例──不过，在亿万豪门俯拾皆是的香港，这样的事件绝非个案。众多香港大企业的掌门人都是出生于战后婴儿潮时期，发家于上世纪五、六十年代。如今这些富豪都步入了人生的暮年，其巨额财富的继承问题也开始陆续浮出水面──常常都会演变为丑陋的法庭大战，有母亲与子女对簿公堂的，也有兄弟相互残杀的。去年，香港发生了多起豪门家族因财富与权力的分配问题而导致的法律纠纷。
口士打律师行(Mayer Brown JSM)专攻家庭纠纷官司的合伙人莫子应(Jonathan Mok)说，这种事情越来越常见，这方面的官司肯定会越来越多。
香港的大家族文化以及看重血统传承的企业文化导致了遗产继承问题的复杂化。香港的企业帝国通常都是由家族紧密把控的，几乎每一个家族后代都会参与家族企业的运行。1971年之前一夫多妻在香港还是合法的，导致大家族内部产生了大量的继承人，纷争自然在所难免。
香港科技大学(Hong Kong University of Science & Technology)副教授、该校亚洲家族企业与创业研究中心(Center for Asian Family Business and Entrepreneurship Studies)联席主任阿里•比巴(Ali Beba)说，跟西方相比，香港的企业会更多地看重人际关系，家族成员之间更加紧密相连，相对而言，西方企业更多地就事论事。
此外，相比于西方，财富的传承对于亚洲人来说是个更新的概念，对他们来说，如今还只是财富从第一代向第二代传递的时期。
不过在财富继承问题上，许多香港豪门掌门人都会紧抓财富控制权，非到万不得已不放手。
莫律师说，“他们这么做不是因为他们需要这些钱来养老，而是因为他们认为财富代表着控制力。如果他们放弃了财富，他们也许就会失去子女的亲情。”
通过相关机构来进行财富规划、安排财产继承事宜在香港还是比较新的概念──香港人对其接受程度远远不及西方。过去还有家族掌门人在去世前提前数年创立信托基金，目的是为了避开遗产税。2006年遗产税废止之后，采取此类法律保障措施的人就更是寥寥了。
莫律师这样形容香港的豪门，“他们总是把一切都搞得神秘兮兮的，麻烦也就随之而至。”
沸沸扬扬的豪门纷争
何氏家族
家长：何鸿�
家族产业：何鸿�是澳门博彩控股有限公司(SJM Holdings Ltd., )的董事长，后者是澳门以收入计规模最大的赌场运营商。此外，他还通过在香港上市的信德集团有限公司(Shun Tak Holdings Ltd)从事交通、医院、投资和房地产生意。
继承人：何鸿�与四个女人生了17个孩子。四太太梁安琪(Angela Leong)是澳门立法会议员。女儿何超琼(Pansy)是信德集团有限公司的常务董事，儿子何猷龙(Lawrence)是纳斯达克上市博彩公司新濠博亚娱乐(Melco Crown Entertainment)的首席执行长，女儿何超仪(Josie)则是一名歌手兼演员。
纷争： 2008年，与何鸿�长期不和的妹妹何婉琪试图阻挠澳门博彩控股有限公司IPO上市（未果）。2010年，经过四年的调查，新泽西州博彩业执法当局禁止美高梅金殿梦幻(MGM Mirage)同何超琼进行业务往来，称何鸿�据说同犯罪集团之间有关联，因此何超琼不是一个合适的合作对象。何鸿�否认了这些说法，而且也从未因不当行为遭到过指控。美高梅卖掉了新泽西州大西洋赌城Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa酒店赌场50%的股权，继续同何超琼保持合作关系，双方合作在澳门开设有一家赌场。如今，何氏家族正针对何鸿�拥有的澳博控股18%的股份展开争夺战。
甘氏家族
家长：甘穗辉(Kam Shui-fai)
家族产业：甘穗辉创办了香港最负盛名的餐厅之一──镛记酒家，以烧鹅而声名远扬。法庭资料显示，私人控股公司镛记控股有限公司(Yung Kee Holdings Ltd.)占有镛记酒家80%的股份，在截止2009年4月的财年中其净利润为5100万港元（656万美元）。相关资料还透露甘氏家族拥有超过20亿港元的资产。
继承人：甘穗辉辞世时，给了长子甘建成(Kinsen Kam)和次子甘琨礼(Kam Kwan-lai)各45%的股份，。女儿甘美玲(Kam Mei-ling)则得到了10%的股份，不过她将这些股份卖给了甘琨礼，后者因此拥有了55%的多数股份。
纷争：去年7月，长子甘健成向香港法院提交了清盘呈请，要求甘琨礼买下自己名下的45%股份，否则就要提请将公司清盘。弟弟甘琨礼申请撤销清盘呈请。法院裁定清盘可以考虑，驳回了撤销清盘的申请。
郭氏家族
家长：郭得胜(Kwok Tak-seng)
家族产业：郭得胜（已于1990年去世）同恒基兆业地产有限公司(Henderson Land Development)总裁李兆基合作创办了新鸿基地产公司(Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd.)，是香港市值最大的地产开发公司。郭氏家族占有该公司大约42%的股份。
继承人：三个儿子：郭炳湘(Walter)、郭炳江(Thomas)、郭炳联(Raymond)。
纷争：2008年，郭氏兄弟的母亲、时年79岁的邝肖卿(Kwong Siu-hing)取代大儿子郭炳湘成为新鸿基的非执行董事兼主席。此前郭炳湘表示，两个弟弟散布谣言称他患有躁郁症，不过他坚称自己身体很健康。
2010年10月，邝肖卿重新调整控制新鸿基地产的郭氏家族信托基金，郭炳湘不在受益人名单之列，不过其中三分一股份权益的受益人仍然是“郭炳湘的家人”。同时，郭炳湘单独发表声明，否认股权权益有所改变。
1月25日，郭炳湘通过《南华早报》(South China Morning Post)表示，他希望几个月之内能有新的解决方案出台，此前在2 010年10月，郭家提出给他200亿港元，其中包括42.4%的新鸿基地产股份，他当时拒绝了。
陈氏家族
家长：陈廷骅(Chen Din-hwa)
家族产业：南丰集团(Nan Fung Group)，涉猎纺织、地产、航运行业。
继承人：两个女儿：陈慧慧(Vivien)和陈慧芳(Angela)
纷争：2010年11月，港媒报导，陈廷骅之妻杨福和(Yang Foo-oi)因家族财产纷争向法院起诉其二女儿陈慧慧。在陈廷骅被确诊为老年痴呆症、认知能力衰退之时，陈慧慧接任了南丰集团的董事长兼总经理。
王氏家族
家长：王德辉(Teddy Wang)，1990年被绑架后失踪，1999年被宣告死亡，不过其尸体一直未能找到。
家族产业：华懋集团(Chinachem Group)，主要从事医药及房产行业，资产数十亿美元。
继承人：2005年，香港终审法院判定王德辉遗孀龚如心(Nina)继承其全部遗产。而此前在2002年，高等法院裁定由王德辉的父亲王廷歆(Wang Din-shin)为其全部遗产继承人，判处龚如心伪造遗嘱。龚如心继承遗产后再接再厉，进一步扩大了华懋房产业务。
纷争：2007年龚如心去世后，又出现了两份遗嘱，受益人分别为华懋慈善基金(Chinachem Charitable Foundation)和龚如心的情人、风水师陈振聪(Tony Chan)。去年，法院裁决华懋慈善基金取得遗产继承权，认定陈振聪所持遗嘱系伪造。不过陈振聪提请了上诉，1月10日法院再次开庭审理此案。
Cathy Yan
（本文版权归道琼斯公司所有，未经许可不得翻译或转载。）
The ongoing Stanley Ho family feud is a dramatic example of the challenges facing the generational transfer of family fortunes but in Hong Kong, the land of billion-dollar dynasties, it is hardly the only.
Atop many of Hong Kong's largest companies are aging entrepreneurs who began making fortunes in the 1950s and '60s, at the height of the postwar boom. Now that these magnates are in their twilight years, the question of their succession is coming to light and often being settled with ugly court battles, including mothers suing their children and brothers ousting brothers. Within the past year, a number of legal disputes have erupted over the distribution of money and power in multibillion-dollar family businesses.
'This is certainly becoming a trend,' says Jonathan Mok, a partner at law firm Mayer Brown JSM in Hong Kong who specializes in family disputes litigation. 'This area of litigation will just grow and grow.'
Succession is complicated by Hong Kong's large extended families and a business culture that stresses the importance of lineage. Hong Kong empires tend to be tightly controlled by families in which almost every offspring is involved in the business. Multiple marriages and concubines were legal in Hong Kong until 1971, meaning ownership within the family can be quite extensive and disputes especially involved.
'Entrepreneurship in this region is more relationship-based and families are more closely tied, as opposed to the West where it's more transactional,' says Ali Beba, an adjunct professor at Hong Kong University of Science & Technology and the associate director of the school's Center for Asian Family Business and Entrepreneurship Studies.
Furthermore, the cycle of wealth is much newer in Asia than in the West, so fortunes are only starting to transfer to the second generation.
But when it comes to succession, many of these magnates are holding out as long as they can to distribute their wealth.
'It's not because they need it for their afterlife, but because they see money as control. If they give it away, perhaps they also will lose their children's affection,' Mr. Mok says.
Institutional structures for wealth planning and succession are relatively new to Hong Kong ─ and far less accepted than in the West. Setting up trusts years in advance of the death of a patriarch used to be a way to avoid inheritance tax. But the legal safeguard has become even less popular after inheritance tax was abolished in 2006.
'They tend to keep everything hush-hush,' Mr. Mok says of Hong Kong's wealthy families. 'That causes the trouble.'
Family Feuds in the News
Ho Family
Patriarch: Stanley Ho
Realm: Stanley Ho is chairman of SJM Holdings Ltd., Macau's largest casino operator by revenue. He also controls transportation, hospitality, investment and property businesses under Hong Kong-listed Shun Tak Holdings Ltd.
Heirs: Has 17 children with four women. His fourth wife, Angela Leong, is a Macau legislator. Daughter Pansy is managing director of Shun Tak Holdings Ltd., while son Lawrence is CEO of Melco Crown Entertainment, a Nasdaq-listed casino company. Daughter Josie is a singer and actress.
Feuds: Stanley Ho's estranged sister, Winnie Ho, tried (but failed) to stop the SJM initial public offering in 2008. In 2010, after a four-year investigation, New Jersey gambling authorities forbade MGM Mirage from doing business with Pansy Ho, saying she is an unsuitable partner due to alleged links between Stanley Ho and criminal enterprises. Stanley Ho has denied the allegations and has never been charged with wrongdoing. MGM sold its 50% stake in the Borgata Hotel Casino in Atlantic City, and continues to do business with Ms. Ho, its partner in a Macau casino resort. Now the Ho family is embroiled in a dispute over the patriarch's controlling 18% stake in SJM.
Kam Family
Patriarch: Kam Shui-fai
Realm: Kam Shui-fai started the Yung Kee restaurant, one of Hong Kong's most renowned restaurants, famous for its roast goose. The restaurant is 80% owned by private holding company Yung Kee Holdings Ltd. and earned 51 million Hong Kong dollars (US$6.56 million) in net profit for the financial year ending April 2009, according to court documents. Documents also revealed that the Kam family had more than HK$2 billion in assets.
Heirs: When Kam Shui-fai died, he gave 45% of shares to older son Kinsen Kam and younger son Kam Kwan-lai each. Daughter Kam Mei-ling got 10% but sold her share to the younger Kam, giving him a majority stake of 55%.
Feuds: Last July, older son Kinsen Kam filed a wind-up petition in Hong Kong court that threatened to close the business unless his younger brother buys out his 45% share. The younger son applied to dismiss the petition. The court ruled that winding-up is an option and dismissed the application to strike the petition.
Kwok Family
Patriarch: Kwok Tak-seng
Realm: Co-founded by Kwok Tak-seng, who died in 1990, and Henderson Land Development Chief Executive Lee Shau-kee, Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd. is Hong Kong's largest property developer by market capitalization. The Kwok family owns around 42% of the company.
Heirs: Three sons: Walter, Thomas and Raymond.
Feuds: In 2008 the eldest son, Walter, was replaced by matriarch Kwong Siu-hing, 79 years old at the time, as nonexecutive director and chairman of Sun Hung Kai. Walter had earlier said that his brothers wanted to oust him by saying he had bipolar disorder, though he insisted that he was healthy.
In October, Mrs. Kwong removed Walter as a beneficiary of the family trusts that control Sun Hung Kai, though a third of the money would still be held for 'Walter Kwok's family.' At the time, Walter denied in a separate statement that shareholding interests had changed.
Walter told the South China Morning Post on Tuesday that a new settlement may be resolved in a few months, after he had rejected an offer of HK$20 billion and a 42.4 % stake in the Sun Hung Kai business in October.
Chen Family
Patriarch: Chen Din-hwa
Realm: Nan Fung Group, a private company involved in textiles, property and shipping.
Heirs: Two daughters: Vivien and Angela.
Feuds: In November, local media reported that Chen Din-hwa's wife, Yang Foo-oi, sued her youngest daughter, Vivien Chen, in a dispute over the distribution of assets. Vivien Chen had taken over as chairman and managing director of Nan Fung after her father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and deemed mentally incapacitated.
Wang Family
Patriarch: Teddy Wang, who was kidnapped and disappeared in 1990. He was declared dead in 1999, though his body was never found.
Realm: Chinachem Group, a multibillion-dollar company that deals with pharmaceuticals and property.
Heirs: In 2005, Nina won her late husband's entire estate after an appeal to Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal. In 2002, the High Court had ruled that Teddy Wang's father, Wang Din-shin, would inherit all of the money and charged Nina with forging a will. Nina went on to build Chinachem into a large property development company.
Feuds: When Nina died in 2007, another dispute erupted over two wills, which would either hand over her entire fortune to the Chinachem Charitable Foundation or to her lover Tony Chan, a feng shui master. Last year, the court ruled in favor of the charity and said that Tony Chan's will was forged. But now Tony Chan is back with an appeal that began on Jan. 10.
Cathy Yan
Atop many of Hong Kong's largest companies are aging entrepreneurs who began making fortunes in the 1950s and '60s, at the height of the postwar boom. Now that these magnates are in their twilight years, the question of their succession is coming to light and often being settled with ugly court battles, including mothers suing their children and brothers ousting brothers. Within the past year, a number of legal disputes have erupted over the distribution of money and power in multibillion-dollar family businesses.
'This is certainly becoming a trend,' says Jonathan Mok, a partner at law firm Mayer Brown JSM in Hong Kong who specializes in family disputes litigation. 'This area of litigation will just grow and grow.'
Succession is complicated by Hong Kong's large extended families and a business culture that stresses the importance of lineage. Hong Kong empires tend to be tightly controlled by families in which almost every offspring is involved in the business. Multiple marriages and concubines were legal in Hong Kong until 1971, meaning ownership within the family can be quite extensive and disputes especially involved.
'Entrepreneurship in this region is more relationship-based and families are more closely tied, as opposed to the West where it's more transactional,' says Ali Beba, an adjunct professor at Hong Kong University of Science & Technology and the associate director of the school's Center for Asian Family Business and Entrepreneurship Studies.
Furthermore, the cycle of wealth is much newer in Asia than in the West, so fortunes are only starting to transfer to the second generation.
But when it comes to succession, many of these magnates are holding out as long as they can to distribute their wealth.
'It's not because they need it for their afterlife, but because they see money as control. If they give it away, perhaps they also will lose their children's affection,' Mr. Mok says.
Institutional structures for wealth planning and succession are relatively new to Hong Kong ─ and far less accepted than in the West. Setting up trusts years in advance of the death of a patriarch used to be a way to avoid inheritance tax. But the legal safeguard has become even less popular after inheritance tax was abolished in 2006.
'They tend to keep everything hush-hush,' Mr. Mok says of Hong Kong's wealthy families. 'That causes the trouble.'
Family Feuds in the News
Ho Family
Patriarch: Stanley Ho
Realm: Stanley Ho is chairman of SJM Holdings Ltd., Macau's largest casino operator by revenue. He also controls transportation, hospitality, investment and property businesses under Hong Kong-listed Shun Tak Holdings Ltd.
Heirs: Has 17 children with four women. His fourth wife, Angela Leong, is a Macau legislator. Daughter Pansy is managing director of Shun Tak Holdings Ltd., while son Lawrence is CEO of Melco Crown Entertainment, a Nasdaq-listed casino company. Daughter Josie is a singer and actress.
Feuds: Stanley Ho's estranged sister, Winnie Ho, tried (but failed) to stop the SJM initial public offering in 2008. In 2010, after a four-year investigation, New Jersey gambling authorities forbade MGM Mirage from doing business with Pansy Ho, saying she is an unsuitable partner due to alleged links between Stanley Ho and criminal enterprises. Stanley Ho has denied the allegations and has never been charged with wrongdoing. MGM sold its 50% stake in the Borgata Hotel Casino in Atlantic City, and continues to do business with Ms. Ho, its partner in a Macau casino resort. Now the Ho family is embroiled in a dispute over the patriarch's controlling 18% stake in SJM.
Kam Family
Patriarch: Kam Shui-fai
Realm: Kam Shui-fai started the Yung Kee restaurant, one of Hong Kong's most renowned restaurants, famous for its roast goose. The restaurant is 80% owned by private holding company Yung Kee Holdings Ltd. and earned 51 million Hong Kong dollars (US$6.56 million) in net profit for the financial year ending April 2009, according to court documents. Documents also revealed that the Kam family had more than HK$2 billion in assets.
Heirs: When Kam Shui-fai died, he gave 45% of shares to older son Kinsen Kam and younger son Kam Kwan-lai each. Daughter Kam Mei-ling got 10% but sold her share to the younger Kam, giving him a majority stake of 55%.
Feuds: Last July, older son Kinsen Kam filed a wind-up petition in Hong Kong court that threatened to close the business unless his younger brother buys out his 45% share. The younger son applied to dismiss the petition. The court ruled that winding-up is an option and dismissed the application to strike the petition.
Kwok Family
Patriarch: Kwok Tak-seng
Realm: Co-founded by Kwok Tak-seng, who died in 1990, and Henderson Land Development Chief Executive Lee Shau-kee, Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd. is Hong Kong's largest property developer by market capitalization. The Kwok family owns around 42% of the company.
Heirs: Three sons: Walter, Thomas and Raymond.
Feuds: In 2008 the eldest son, Walter, was replaced by matriarch Kwong Siu-hing, 79 years old at the time, as nonexecutive director and chairman of Sun Hung Kai. Walter had earlier said that his brothers wanted to oust him by saying he had bipolar disorder, though he insisted that he was healthy.
In October, Mrs. Kwong removed Walter as a beneficiary of the family trusts that control Sun Hung Kai, though a third of the money would still be held for 'Walter Kwok's family.' At the time, Walter denied in a separate statement that shareholding interests had changed.
Walter told the South China Morning Post on Tuesday that a new settlement may be resolved in a few months, after he had rejected an offer of HK$20 billion and a 42.4 % stake in the Sun Hung Kai business in October.
Chen Family
Patriarch: Chen Din-hwa
Realm: Nan Fung Group, a private company involved in textiles, property and shipping.
Heirs: Two daughters: Vivien and Angela.
Feuds: In November, local media reported that Chen Din-hwa's wife, Yang Foo-oi, sued her youngest daughter, Vivien Chen, in a dispute over the distribution of assets. Vivien Chen had taken over as chairman and managing director of Nan Fung after her father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and deemed mentally incapacitated.
Wang Family
Patriarch: Teddy Wang, who was kidnapped and disappeared in 1990. He was declared dead in 1999, though his body was never found.
Realm: Chinachem Group, a multibillion-dollar company that deals with pharmaceuticals and property.
Heirs: In 2005, Nina won her late husband's entire estate after an appeal to Hong Kong's Court of Final Appeal. In 2002, the High Court had ruled that Teddy Wang's father, Wang Din-shin, would inherit all of the money and charged Nina with forging a will. Nina went on to build Chinachem into a large property development company.
Feuds: When Nina died in 2007, another dispute erupted over two wills, which would either hand over her entire fortune to the Chinachem Charitable Foundation or to her lover Tony Chan, a feng shui master. Last year, the court ruled in favor of the charity and said that Tony Chan's will was forged. But now Tony Chan is back with an appeal that began on Jan. 10.
Cathy Yan
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