A debt missing from Chinachem Charitable Foundation Limited’s accounts was central to the High Court’s finding that it did not qualify to serve as trustee of Nina Wang’s estate, worth more than HK$140 billion. The court ruled in 2023 that the fund did not meet the financial-soundness condition; written reasons explaining the decision were issued on 13 November 2026.
The fund’s unaudited statements to the end of May 2023 showed net assets of about HK$3.59 million, but did not include the debt. In 2009, the fund borrowed HK$42.85 million to pay legal costs in litigation over Wang’s estate. A court ordered it to repay the loan, and by the hearing the debt had grown to more than HK$330 million.
The judge said that counting the debt would leave the fund with a net-asset deficit of more than HK$300 million. That would still be the case even if an appeal succeeded in overturning the interest component, the written reasons said.
Wang died in April 2007, about 16 years before the hearing. The judge said the estate-management plan should not be delayed further while appeal and costs-recovery proceedings continued. The plan was to be drawn up jointly by the Department of Justice and the estate administrators.
In January 2025, the Department of Justice said the High Court had appointed Nina Wang Charity Management Limited to replace the foundation as trustee.