The mother of one of Hong Kong’s richest tycoons paid nearly US$77 million for his release after he was kidnapped by a notorious gangster, a report said yesterday.
Kwong Siu-hing (鄺肖卿), the 79-year-old chairwoman of Sun Hung Kai Properties, met gangster Cheung Tze-keung (張子強), known as “Big Spender,” days after he kidnapped her eldest son Walter Kwok (郭炳湘) in September 1997, the Standard reported.
Accompanied by one of her younger sons and Kwok’s wife, Kwong offered Cheung HK$600 million (US$76.92 million) to get her eldest son back.
The ransom in HK$1,000 notes was packed inside 20 large carrier bags and driven in two Mercedes Saloon cars to a quiet lane in Central district, the report said, quoting a source close to the family. Cheung and his accomplice drove the two cars away with the cash.
The report said the family did a global search of previous ransoms paid and decided to make the offer to Cheung by tripling the amount of the biggest ransom ever paid after the gangster kept changing his demands.
Kwok was later found alive by his family in a wooden container box in a village house, the report said.
For years rumors had circulated that Walter’s two younger brothers, Thomas (郭炳江) and Raymond (郭炳聯), were reluctant to pay the ransom.
The report on details of the kidnapping emerged during an ongoing family row over control of Sun Hung Kai Properties, the city’s largest property firm.
Walter Kwok was ousted from the chairmanship in May and his mother, the widow of the company’s former chairman Kwok Tak-seng (郭得勝), has since taken over the reins.
The ouster came the day after Kwok, who had been on leave from the company since February, failed in a last-ditch legal bid to try and prevent a board meeting where the company’s directors were to vote on removing him.
Kwok has accused his brothers, both vice-chairmen and managing directors of the firm, of falsely asserting that he had a mental disorder, court documents showed.
The rift was reportedly caused by Walter’s involvement with a female friend whom it was alleged had become increasingly influential on the married tycoon and his firm.
Gangster Cheung was tried and executed in China in 1998.
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