MACAU/HONG KONG, (Reuters) – Macau casino magnate Stanley Ho has sued family members in a bid to recover billions of dollars of assets in another bizarre U-turn to a feud over the ailing tycoon’s empire.
Ho, chairman of Macau’s biggest casino operator, SJM Holdings , hours earlier had gone on television to say he would not sue and that he wanted to resolve the matter privately with his family.
The latest move in the zig-zag tussle for the 89-year-old tycoon’s billions of dollars of assets suggests an escalating scramble between factions of Ho’s family, which includes four wives and at least 17 children.
Ho’s lawyer, Gordon Oldham, said he had filed a court claim on Ho’s behalf against the children, including Pansy and Lawrence Ho, other relatives and companies, late on Wednesday.
A copy of the court claim filed at Hong Kong’s High Court obtained by Reuters said Ho was suing his third wife and the five children of his second wife for issuing new shares in Lanceford, the main holding company for Ho’s interest in SJM, without his consent, effectively diluting Ho’s stake to nothing.
The writ, signed by Ho, sought a reversal of the transaction and a declaration that the “shares were improperly and unlawfully allotted” while seeking an injunction to “restrain each of them” from making further share allotments or disposals.
“Regarding his statement on television, this was not his sentiment. He wants to continue. He is trying to get his wealth back,” Oldham told Reuters in a telephone interview.
“He had been pressurised into making that statement.”
For centuries a sleepy Portuguese outpost down the South China coast from bustling financial hub Hong Kong, Macau made gambling its business in a region where most betting has long been illegal. It reverted to Chinese rule in 1999, two years after Hong Kong.
Ho was granted a casino monopoly in the early 1960s and his company remains dominant even though the monopoly came to an end in 2002, opening the way to a flood of Las Vegas operators who have turned the enclave into the world’s biggest gambling market, eclipsing even Las Vegas.
FAMILY FEUD
Ho, who underwent brain surgery in 2009, appeared calm during his televised comments on Wednesday, but his voice was weak and slurred as he read from a cue card to appeal for harmony within his family.
Analysts say the tussle over Ho’s fortune may have been triggered by a move to pave the way for an orderly succession.
Last month, Ho’s fourth wife, Angela Leong, a former dance teacher who has five children, was given a 7.03 percent stake by Ho in his gambling flagship company SJM, taking her shareholding up to 7.63 percent to make her the second-largest single shareholder.
