Macau Casino Tycoon Changes Mind About Family Stealing

January 26th, 2011 by Keira Perivolaris | Print

One of the wealthiest men in Hong Kong, Stanley Ho the Macau casino tycoon, recanted accusations today that his children and wife had conspired to steal his assets.

After two days of differing and conflicting statements from Ho’s lawyers and public relations officials it seemed like some kind of schism in the Ho family was threatening to tear Ho’s estate apart. Ho insisted that his 31.7 stake in Sociedade de Turismo e Diversoes de Macau SA was stolen from him by his children and his third wife. He claimed that he was initiating legal action to recover the stolen assets.

Now Ho has recanted with a televised explanation where he stated, “I have been really unhappy recently because of the disputes, my family members were unhappy as well,” he said. “The big problem has been resolved.”

Yesterday Ho’s lawyer, Gordon Oldham, quoted him as saying that his family was stealing his shares of the company. Now Ho has described that quote as part of a “misunderstanding” and went to say that he has fired his lawyer.

For his part, Oldham said that he has yet to be instructed to stop legal action against Ho’s wife and children. Since then Oldham has met with Ho again but would not give a comment to local reporters on what transpired in the meeting.

After Ho’s statement was broadcast, Ho’s daughter Angel Ho pointed out that this decision to transfer shares to just the five children of his second wife and his current wife don’t correspond with his repeated declarations that his estate would be divided equally among all 16 of his children.

Angela Ho recently emailed out a statement on the subject saying, “My father speaks to me often and has stated publicly about how he intends to divide his estate evenly amongst his children.”

The public dispute had caused the company’s stock price to drop by 4.9% yesterday, equal to about $480 million in market value.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 26th, 2011 at 1:12 am and is filed under Gambling History. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Tagged as: Casino Tycoon, Macau Casino, Macau Casino Tycoon, Tycoon

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