Tycoon must give £3m to lover

By Andrew Hough

Samuel Tak Lee, a billionaire Hong Kong property magnate, was “deliberately untruthful” about the true nature of his relationship with his long-term “sexual companion”, a judge ruled.

On Friday, Mr Justice Norris ordered the tycoon, “one of the world’s truly super rich”, to hand over ownership of the £3 million central London properties to the 42 year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons.

The two and half-year legal battle ended with the judge being asked to “analyse the partial accounts of two less than straightforward people”.

He rejected the married father's claims that he owned the two properties in Hammersmith, west London, which were bought for £1.5 and £1.6 million respectively in 2008.

The woman claimed she had an affair with Mr Lee, also owns the 16 acre Langham Estate between Soho and Mayfair, at her central London home and in hotels all over the world including Paris and Tokyo.

Mr Lee owns prime property in the heart of London's West end, a hotel in West Kensington as well as real estate in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Switzerland.

The woman told the court that she was the “mistress of a fabulously wealthy man” who was given money and advice by Mr Lee

The judge said her evidence was that she was “not employed as a PA but was Mr Lee's companion on whom he lavished gifts” including furs, expensive Rolex watches and diamonds. The businessman claimed they were business related.

He added that it was “common ground” Mr Lee paid her £4.26 million between September 2006 and December 2008 by 23 separate payments of irregular amounts.

In addition “direct payments totalling at least £1.18 million had already been made by the end of October 2006”.

The woman also claimed her lover, who owned 26 vehicles, also gave her a Ford Focus and a Mercedes-Benz car as gifts. Mr Lee had claimed they were company cars.

“Her evidence on this was not specifically challenged (though there was a general challenge as to the nature of payments generally),” the judge added.

Ordering ownership of properties be handed over to the woman, a masseuse, the judge said he was satisfied she was telling the truth.

He then accused Mr Lee, who is in his 70s, of lying to the court about the relationship because the businessman had wanted to protect his honour.

Mr Lee had told the court that the woman was one of his employees who would manage a hotel that was to be built on the properties.

“She was not a business functionary but a sexual companion,” the judge concluded.

“In this regard, Mr Lee has not incorrectly recollected matters. He has been deliberately untruthful. He has lied.”

"Mr Lee's own case there is no doubt that he was sexually active and willing to have a sexual relationship outside marriage".

He said that the woman had been "prepared to give some fairly intimate detail of Mr Lee’s anatomy", which went "unverified".

"But that fact that she was prepared to run the risk speaks of a degree of confidence in the truth of the answer which would probably not be found in even a brazen liar," he added.

The judge found that while one of the properties was purchased with Mr Lee’s money, the property developer had intended to give it to her as a gift.

He had also used the name of his lover’s Seychelles based company during the purchasing process, the court heard.

The judge also found that the other property next door was eventually paid for by Mr Lee who had paid of part of her loan.

This, the judge ruled, showed that Mr Lee had wanted his lover to have the properties.

The court heard that she had been hired to work for his property empire under a complex and secretive business model known as “Zho Wen Xuan”, which was named after a Chinese businessman.

Mr Lee told the court that he had a “number of PA’s” but the woman had became the “team's top dog”.

The judge said Mr Lee admitted that none of his PAs received large gifts “though for him a seasonal gift of several thousand pounds would not be large”. But the woman later claimed that she was in fact his mistress.

He claimed the woman, from West Kensington, West London, was his personal assistant role despite her having no experience or qualifications.

The woman, who emigrated from Shanghai in 2005, met her lover after she placed an advertisement Singtao, a prominent Chinese daily paper the following year. The pair then had a torrid affair.

The judge added: “She said that Mr Lee so enjoyed her companionship that he was willing to assist two members of her family to immigrate but for that purpose they each needed to demonstrate to the UK Border Agency that they had funds of £200,000-£250,000 and were involved in business.

“So the proposal was that Mr Lee would buy a business for (her) in which her relatives could work to establish their immigration status.”

He later encouraged her to emulate himself and Mr Xuan who had built up an extensive commercial empire from nothing.

Though the judge found the woman was “frequently an untruthful person” he said he believed the pair were lovers.

“Mr Lee was a generally truthful person: but he has lied to me because, I think, he sees it necessary for his honour and his reputation to demonstrate that he can control people within his realm of management, and (she) resists his control,” he said.

“He certainly does not care about the money, which is to him next to nothing.

“His case could not have been harder fought.”

Wei-Ling Choi, from Kamberley Solicitors, who represented the woman, said that her client felt “relieved”.

“It has been an ongoing battle for two and half years and she is delighted that the judge considered her evidence the way he did,” she told The Daily Telegraph.

“She is very relieved because obviously Mr Lee is a billionaire with all the resources behind him to try and crush her.

“She feels the judgement has restored her faith in the justice system.”

Lawyers representing Mr Lee declined to comment.
Telegraph