Two days ago, the Fok Ying Tung family property dispute case was officially heard.
The core of the competition is fought by Fok Yingdong in 1996 for about 30,000 mu of Nansha land.
At present, the Huo family has a project income of 7 billion yuan on this land alone.
Such a huge division of property, the opening statement alone is more than a thousand pages, and the judge expects the trial to last up to 60 days.
In other words, this lawsuit will take at least two months.
I have to say that the story of Hong Kong giants fighting for family property is really getting more and more interesting.
Before introducing the ins and outs of the Huo family's property dispute, let's first take a look at the Huo family's family background.
Huo Yingdong has a total of three wives: the original Lu Yanni, the second wife Feng Jianni, and the third Tai Lin Shuduan.
Dafang Lü Yanni gave birth to three sons: the eldest son Huo Zhenting, the second son Huo Zhenhuan, and the third son Huo Zhenyu.
The specific genealogy can be seen in this figure:
The protagonists of this property dispute are the three sons of Huo Yingdong's longhouse.
From left: Huo Zhenting, Huo Zhenhuan, Huo Zhenyu
The complainant is Huo Zhenyu, the third son of Huo Yingdong, and the eldest daughter Huo Liping and the second daughter Huo Lina are responsible for helping.
The accused are the second son Huo Zhenhuan and the eldest son Huo Zhenting (Huo Qigang's father).
The cause is mentioned in the opening paragraph, the Nansha land.
After Huo Yingdong bought the land, he sold the shares of the 30,000 mu of Nansha land to the Fok Yingdong Foundation for a purchase price of one yuan.
The money in the Fok Ying Tung Foundation is for charitable purposes, which is equivalent to donating.
But Fok Yingdong made another "regulation", that is:
Before 2007, the Huo family had the right to buy back the shares of Nansha Land at a repurchase price of one yuan, which expired and was invalidated.
But until today, the Huo family has not bought back the shares of Nansha land for one yuan.
That is to say, these 30,000 mu of Nansha land theoretically do not belong to the children of the Huo family.
But now, Huo Zhenyu has sued his brother Huo Zhenhuan for concealing huo's right to buy 7.6 billion yuan of project interests at a one-yuan buyback price.
He believes that if he knew that he could buy this land back that year, he would definitely buy it.
Therefore, Huo Zhenhuan wants to compensate us children.
Image source Visual China, 73-year-old Huo Zhenhuan
But Huo Zhenhuan said:
His father, Fok Ying Tung, originally invested in the Nansha project out of charity construction.
Before his death, he also decided to donate this part of the proceeds to the charitable foundation for charitable purposes.
Therefore, we should respect the wishes of our fathers and use the rights and interests of the Nansha land project as charitable purposes.
And Huo Zhenhuan said that he did not deliberately hide the "one-dollar repurchase price" from Huo Zhenyu.
At that time, the matter was public, and many people knew about it.
Both sides have their own reasons, and they can only wait for the judge to try.
However, it is worth mentioning that when Huo Yingdong bought this land, these sons did not support it.
Think that the old man buying a piece of wasteland is a waste of money.
It is also because of this that no one cares about the "one-dollar buyback" at all.
But now, with the establishment of the Nansha Free Trade Zone, this land is worth hundreds of billions of dollars, and everyone can't sit still.
It is really in response to that sentence, the thin field is not cultivated, and the ploughing is fought over.
In order to compete for this piece of land, the two sides also hired a "star big" to fight.
Huo Lina hired "heavyweight" senior barrister Yu Ruohai.
Playing for Fok Chun-wan is a senior barrister, former Secretary for Justice, Wong Yan Lung.
These two barristers have been helping Hong Kong's rich people fight lawsuits for many years, and there have been two figures in the inheritance dispute between the gambling king family and the richest woman Gong Ruxin.
It's a bit like TVB making a TV series.
Of course, this is not the first time that a live TV series has been broadcast live.
As early as 2008, the fuse of the Huo family's dispute for production was ignited.
At that time, the second son, Huo Zhenhuan, privately sold a sum of the Huo family's property, worth a total of 6.4 billion.
According to gossip, after getting the money, Huo Zhenhuan called a meeting of family members and said that as long as they admitted that the transaction was reasonable, everyone could get a part of the money.
At that time, the second and third rooms had such benefits because of their low family status, so they naturally signed.
It is said that 500 million yuan was distributed from Huo Zhenhuan.
Huo family big room
But the brothers and sisters in the big room are not so confused.
Huo Zhenyu retorted, "Huo Zhenhuan is only managing the family's common property on behalf of his father."
Implicitly, this is money theft.
The quarrel between the two sides could not lead to the result, and Huo Zhenyu simply sued his second brother in court in 2010.
And because others had already divided the money, all 16 members of the Huo family went to the plaintiff's and defendant's seats in this lawsuit.
At that time, not only the whole people of Hong Kong ate melons, but even the Hong Kong government was alarmed.
A moment before the trial, the former Chief Executive, Tung Chee-hwa, and the former Secretary for Justice, Leung Ai-shi, personally mediated for them, and the two sides reached a settlement.
But it also used this to divide the 30 billion yuan of property left by Huo Yingdong.
Among them, 10 billion are divided between the second and third houses, and the remaining 20 billion are divided equally by the three sons of the big house.
But within a few years, everyone found that Huo Yingdong's property was far more than that.
For example, the Nansha land mentioned above.
So, in 2015, the brothers tore up again for the sake of inheritance!
It was only at that time that because her mother Lu Yanni had been persuading her to make peace, the two sides did not tear their faces.
In 2020, Lu Yanni passed away and could no longer be persuaded.
A year after keeping filial piety, the two brothers once again confronted the court.
Until now, it is still fighting lawsuits.
In fact, if others look at it, you really can't blame the uneven distribution.
Blame it, your family is too rich.
In court, Ms. Hollina's lawyers re-examined Fok Yingdong's estate, including deposits of 2.7 billion, foundations of 7 billion and offshore funds of HK$1.6 billion, totaling HK$11.3 billion.
However, because the core assets of the estate are not listed, the outside world estimates that the real family property is far beyond imagination.
After all, as one of the four giants in Hong Kong, the Huo family has long laid out the fields of architecture, building materials, petroleum, department stores, hotels, restaurants, entertainment and so on.
In 1950, Huojia had more than 60 enterprises and more than 100,000 employees.
The total population of Hong Kong at that time was only 2 million, so one in the average 20 people in Hong Kong was an employee of the Huo family.
In 2013, more accountants set the value of the "Huo Xingyetang Co., Ltd." established by Fok Yingdong himself at 67 billion yuan.
In addition, as a patriotic businessman, Fok Yingdong also made a lot of investments in the mainland.
For example, in 1983, in response to the reform and opening up in Guangzhou, he built China's first five-star hotel at that time.
Since then, a number of bridges and highways have been donated.
He has also worked for many years for Beijing's bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games and China's sports industry.
Therefore, the wealth of the Fok family in Hong Kong has exceeded the scope of money measurement.
It is rumored that Zhang Ziqiang dared to kidnap Li Ka-shing's son, but did not dare to move half of Huo Yingdong's finger.
Of course, the finances of the giants will generally arrange special personnel to take care of them in advance.
On May 20, 1978, Fok Yingdong made a will that he would not be allowed to separate his family for 20 years after his death.
At the same time, it is stipulated that the three major undertakings of the family shall be inherited by the three sons of the long house:
Changfang's eldest son, Huo Zhenting, inherited the sports business; Huo Zhenhuan, the second son of Changfang, took over the family business; and Huo Zhenyu, the third son of Changfang, took over the development plan of Nansha in the mainland.
The children of the second and third parties are prohibited from engaging in business, and they mainly develop in the direction of lawyers and doctors.
The descendants of each party receive a fixed monthly living expenses from the inheritance.
The idea is very beautiful, but after the death of Fok Yingdong, the old drama of the giants of "brothers fighting against each other for inheritance" is still the same.
Of course, for us who eat melons, what we care more about is whether Guo Jingjing will be involved.
After all, a generation of diving queens married to Hong Kong early, which made many people uneasy.
Moreover, the combination of the third generation of the Huo family and the Olympic diving champion Guo Jingjing can also be seen as part of the Huo family's political and commercial layout.
However, it seems that there is no intention of dispute, Guo Jingjing and Huo Qi just got married, and then moved out of the Huo family mansion.
At that time, there were media reports that the two carried cheap woven bags, personally moved things for themselves, went to the supermarket to shop, and also picked up cheap goods.
Even, in September 2015, when Guo Jingjing and Huo Qigang attended the military parade on the Victory Day of the Anti-Japanese War, the head rope tied in their hair was all 5 cents of ground stalls.
It is as if the two little ones have become self-reliant, far away from the grudges of the giants.
But then again, even if the small life has become a clear stream in the giants, as the eldest grandson of the long house, this property dispute case may be difficult to stay out of the matter.
Last year, Huo Qigang posted an article to commemorate his grandfather Huo Yingdong, and the "drinking water thinking about the source" and "seeing the essence through the phenomenon" mentioned by the media were considered by the media to be a statement on the matter of competing for production.
In 2018, Guo Jingjing was elected as the chairman of Nansha Culture, and the company's development direction is Nansha District.
In addition, from the perspective of the structure of Nansha Company, in addition to Huo Zhenhuan, Huo Zhenting, and Huo Zhenyu, who have the final say.
Huo Zhenting and Huo Zhenhuan also arranged for their son to serve as a director in the Nansha Company project early on.
For example, such as Huo Qigang, Huo Qishan and Huo Qiwen.
Therefore, in the end, the completion task of the Nansha project will most likely be completed by the third generation of the Huo family.
At that time, the three generations may have to repeat today's strife.
It looks very realistic and unforgiving, but hasn't it always been like this since ancient times?
As the saying goes, where there are any relatives, there are only people with common interests.
In particular, the relatives of the giants are often affectionate and the most ruthless.
Of course, the struggle for family property, whether legally or morally, is a private matter that people take for granted.
Even ordinary people will fall into the swamp of struggle among the members of the family.
However, think of Huo Yingdong's generation, who went through hardships and dangers all the way to earn this family business.
In order to be able to have a family and everything, he also made a will and stipulated that no family would be separated for twenty years.
Now he has only been dead for 16 years, but the two brothers have already caused two lawsuits.
Seeing that the minds of future generations are mostly focused on competing for family property, I don't know what to think.
Maybe it's like the saying, "I was born in the imperial family."
It is both lucky and helpless.
However, in the final analysis, a gentleman loves money and should take it.
Don't gamble on human nature because of money, and don't choose to lose things that shouldn't be lost because of money—family, love, morality, conscience.
Otherwise, if you pull out the aura, you will only be a chicken feather.
-Ends-
Images and sources:
"The Huo Yingdong Family Opposes the Eye, and the Guangzhou Land Dispute Case Begins!" Guo Jingjing did not expect", said Cai Cat, 2022.01.11
"The chief executive of Hong Kong personally divided the inheritance, and today this giant is fighting for production again!" Hong Kong People, 2022.01.11
"Fighting for tens of thousands of acres of land in Nansha, Guangzhou, Fok Yingdong's children's property dispute case opened in Hong Kong!" Guo Jingjing is very difficult to be sandwiched in the middle", Talmud Regal Association, 2022.01.12
"Huo Family Stirs Up Storm Again: Assets Involved in the Case of 7 Billion, Guo Jingjing Can't Sit Still? Magazine Trip, 2022.01.13