The son of a wealthy businessman is asking the courts to order his late father’s wife to return millions that he alleges she withdrew from various accounts before and after he died and used to buy homes for her and her children.
Li Yuok Lun Alvin, also known as Alvin Li, says he is the only child of Raymond Ping Yun Li. In his lawsuit, he alleges his father’s second wife, Kit Man Katherine Chau, who goes by Maria, transferred $9 million from Swiss bank accounts between 2015 and 2018, the year he died, according to a lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court.
Chau also sold an unknown amount of the “substantial” stock holdings that Raymond Li held in BYD, a Chinese electric vehicle company with higher sales last year than Tesla, and deposited the money in an account in her name, the lawsuit alleges.
Alvin Li, a Hong Kong businessman in his mid-50s, was the child of Raymond Li and his first wife, Dora Bik Wan Lee. She died in 2005 and Raymond Li married Chau in 2008, when he was 81. He died in 2018 at age 90 but had dementia for several years before he died, the lawsuit said.
“The deceased did not have sufficient capacity to consent to the unauthorized withdrawals or make gifts of the funds” to Chau, or he wasn’t aware of the withdrawals and could not consent, the lawsuit argues.
Alvin Li said his father opened joint accounts with Chau in 2013 and she transferred legal title to investments and holdings, including the longtime family home on Eyremount Drive in West Vancouver, to her.
She was granted enduring power of attorney under the Power of Attorney Act, the terms of which are known only to Chau, according to the lawsuit. She had access to his bank and investment accounts and “withdrew funds for her personal use,” it alleged.
“She owed a fiduciary obligation to use and manage such assets for the benefit of the deceased,” it said.
Chau used the money to fully or partly fund the purchase of properties in Vancouver and West Vancouver, including one she later sold for $3.4 million and another for $1.95 million, it said. The proceeds were used to buy other properties, it said.
A $1.95 million house in south Vancouver was registered to her daughter, Amy Chun-Yee Li, and her husband, David Ling Yee, according to the lawsuit. Another of her daughters held title to a Kitsilano condo.
A Dunbar property sold for $3.39 million last October and none of the money went to the deceased’s estate, the lawsuit said.
A property in Ambleside in West Vancouver was bought using proceeds from the deceased’s property, including the fund from “unauthorized withdrawals” of the joint accounts or the deceased’s property, the lawsuit alleges.
“Most of the purchase monies came from the deceased’s property and Maria contributed only a small portion,” it said.
The lawsuit says that, in 2016, Chau set up a joint family trust to benefit Alvin Li and his three sons, and Chau’s three children, Amy, Angelina Chun-Wai Li, also known as Chun Wai Li, and Agnes Chun-Yun Li, also known as Chun Yun Li, all also defendants, along with Amy’s husband.
Chau said she had donated a UBC property to the trust. But the lawsuit argues she had no legal interest in the UBC property because its title had never been transferred to her.
Also in 2016, a will was written that left Raymond Li’s estate in equal shares to his three “children,” listing Chau’s daughters, it said. The will “does not make any provision” for Alvin Li and he disputes its validity, according to the claim.
Alvin Li is seeking orders that all four homes owned by Chau and her children plus the proceeds from the other house sales be declared part of Raymond Li’s estate, as well as the Swiss accounts and BYD assets.
And the lawsuit asks the court to order Chau to compensate and make full restitution to the deceased’s estate “for all funds she improperly took from the deceased’s personal accounts.”
None of the allegations have been proved in court.
A message left with Alvin Li’s lawyer wasn’t returned. The defendants could not be reached for comment and haven’t filed a response in court.