The Secretary of Justice (SJ) has appointed three people to a body supervising a new trustee of the estate of the late tycoon Nina Wang. Former Monetary Authority chief Joseph Yam, former Legislative Council president Rita Fan and former Baptist University Council chairman Cheng Yan-kee were named members of the supervisory managing organisation (SMO) responsible for supervising the operation of the trustee that was appointed by the High Court. Wang, who chaired developer Chinachem, died in 2007, and the legal battles for her HK$141 billion estate ensued for years. In 2023, the High Court ruled that a charitable foundation founded by the firm was not suitable to be the trustee of her estate. The court later agreed with the SJ's plan to set up a new trust. The Department of Justice said it firmly believes that after the trustee's board is formed, it will do its best in managing the charitable trust, "including charity projects and a 'fund and a Chinese prize of worldwide significance similar to that of the Nobel Prize', to fulfil Mrs Wang's testamentary wishes and bring benefits to the country, including different sectors of Hong Kong society." The department stressed that local laws state that the SJ has a role in protecting charitable interests, and it therefore intervened in the estate's legal proceedings in view of significant public interest.
