1. Shock and uproar in Hong Kong society
This figure almost made everyone jaw-dropping, and Hong Kong society suddenly boiled. After all, HK$1.2 billion is an astronomical amount that even many middle-class people cannot achieve in their lifetime.
And the one who needs to pay this huge amount of money is the prestigious and illustrious Li family.
For a time, this news became a hot topic after tea and dinner in Hong Kong. Many people secretly rejoiced, feeling that those rich people who used to be arrogant and self-contained have finally tasted failure.
"Rich people are sad, too!" Their family's reserved face is gone, right?" ...... Similar comments are popping up on social media.
People in high society are even more surprised by this. As the leading wealthy family in Hong Kong, the Li family was invincible and proud in the past, and no one dared to dictate the huge family wealth accumulated by their ancestors for several generations.
Who would have thought that this time it would fall at the hands of a woman and pay such a heavy price.
What is even more convincing is Ms. Zeng Zhaoying, who took the initiative to take the Li family to court. She not only learned a lot of money and had good legal skills, but also strategized and worked step by step, relying on her own wisdom and courage to successfully destroy this powerful family.
For a time, Zeng Zhaoying became an idol respected by Hong Kong society. Many people admired her wisdom and ability, believing that she witnessed the power of knowledge and demonstrated to everyone the independent personality and tenacity of women.
Of course, there are also people who question and criticize Zeng Zhaoying's approach. In their opinion, although the Li family bent the law for Zeng Zhaoying's personal gain, she was ruthless and wantonly grabbed sky-high child support, and her behavior has lost her basic reserve and bottom line.
However, judging from the results, the court's judgment undoubtedly echoes the expectations of more people in society - those who have been bullied by powerful capital have finally seen the day when fairness and justice can be served.
For Hong Kong, a society governed by the rule of law, this is undoubtedly a shot in the arm.
Second, the reason why Zeng Zhaoying married into the Li family
To understand this sensational divorce lawsuit in Hong Kong society, we need to go back to 2000, when Zeng Zhaoying, a beautiful student at Cambridge University, married into the Li family.
Tsang Chiu-ying was born into a family of lawyers in Hong Kong, and the family has cultivated excellent legal talents for generations. She herself is no exception, not only did she achieve excellent results at the University of Cambridge Law, but after graduation, she became one of the most prestigious senior lawyers in Hong Kong, earning tens of millions of Hong Kong dollars a year.
In addition to her outstanding academic performance, Zeng Zhaoying's appearance is also outstanding. She has a beautiful appearance and a gentle temperament, giving people a fresh and refined feeling.
There are countless suitors around him, and she can be described as the well-known "Mrs. Wang".
It is with these unique personal charms that Zeng Zhaoying attracted the attention of Li Jianqin, the son of the Li family. Li Jianqin is the sole heir of the Li family's ancestors for several generations, and he can be described as a powerful person in Hong Kong.
He was enthusiastic and attentive to Zeng Zhaoying, and he spared no effort.
At first, Zeng Zhaoying was unimpressed by Li Jianqin's pursuit. In her opinion, although Li Jianqin's family background is illustrious, his style is too profligate, and he is completely unworthy of his elegant personality and sentiments.
However, Li Jianqin was not discouraged by this. On the contrary, he intensified his efforts and tried his best to show favor to Zeng Zhaoying. In the end, under the dual offensive of financial and material resources, Zeng Zhaoying was still moved and nodded and agreed to fall in love with her.
Soon after, the two began to live together, and soon entered the palace of marriage. For Zeng Zhaoying, marrying into the Li family is undoubtedly a rare opportunity.
Although her own family background is not inferior, there is still a certain gap compared with the Li family.
Once she stepped into the door of the Li family, she could live a life like a noblewoman and be carefree from now on. And, more importantly, with her excellent professionalism, she is expected to show her skills in the huge business territory of the Li family and truly realize her self-worth.
It was precisely because of this that Zeng Zhaoying finally made the choice to marry into a wealthy family. It can be said that she has carefully planned a new chapter in her life for herself with her unique ambition.
3. The dispute over childbirth has led to a divorce crisis
Just entered the marriage hall, Zeng Zhaoying and Li Jianqin's lives were quite happy for a while. As a lawyer with a professional background, Zeng Zhaoying used her wisdom and ability to help deal with many difficult affairs of the Li family, and won high praise from the Li family, known as "virtuous helper".
The relationship between the two is also very good, Zeng Zhaoying lives a rich and luxurious life, and spends as much as 5 million Hong Kong dollars on clothing and maintenance every year. Sometimes she would even be so willful as to buy three pet dogs worth HK$200,000 at a time for recreation.
It can be said that she enjoys all kinds of privileges and glory after marrying into a wealthy family.
However, the good times did not last long, and fertility issues soon became an obstacle to the couple's relationship. There is an unspoken rule in Hong Kong society, that is, the status of a childless wife is extremely precarious and can be abandoned at any time.
Zeng Zhaoying knows this very well and is eager to conceive a child and stabilize her position in the Li family.
But what is unexpected is that Li Jianqin, as a husband, does not want to have children. Over the years, he has been influenced by Li Deyi's stingy education for a long time, and his worries and attention to family property have reached a point that borders on paranoia.
He was very jealous that someone would share the family property with him in the future, so he had a strong panic and rebellion about childbirth.
In this way, the husband and wife had violent disagreements and contradictions on the issue of fertility. Zeng Zhaoying was indignant, thinking that Li Jianqin was an insult to her and completely violated her duty to marry.
So she asked for a divorce and asked Li Jianqin for the corresponding alimony.
Just as this contradiction intensified, a ridiculous prenuptial agreement surfaced. It turned out that at the beginning of the marriage, Li Deyi had already taken precautions and hired a lawyer to draft this agreement, stipulating that if divorced, he could only receive a divorce compensation of 10 million Hong Kong dollars.
Once executed, Zeng Zhaoying will get nothing.
Faced with such wanton humiliation, Zeng Zhaoying almost collapsed. In order to fight for her legitimate rights and interests, she resolutely proposed that as long as Li Jianqin was willing to tear up this agreement, she could be obedient and no longer entangled in childbirth.
What is surprising is that seeing that Zeng Zhaoying really moved his mind to divorce, Li Jianqin actually tore up this important legal document on the spot and agreed to Zeng Zhaoying's request again and again.
However, this decision was destined to make him regret it a lot.
Because at the end of 2008, Zeng Zhaoying was really pregnant and gave birth. Faced with the imminent birth of a new life, Li Jianqin was ruthless in turn, ordering Zeng Zhaoying to have an abortion, and asked for a divorce on this ground.
Faced with her husband's ruthlessness and injustice, Zeng Zhaoying was furious and determined to get justice for herself and her children.
Fourth: The Li family's family background and wealth origin
To fully understand the weight of this divorce lawsuit, it is necessary to talk about the Li family's family lineage and wealth accumulation process.
The Lee family is one of the most wealthy families in Hong Kong, with a family business spread all over the world, and their wealth can be traced back to generations of hard work. Lee's ancestors were the main owners of Hong Kong's racecourse, and he became the first generation of wealthy people in the Li family after starting from scratch.
In the generation of Li Deyi's father, the family wealth has been further accumulated and expanded. He founded Hong Kong's top Heng Fung Hotel, making the Lee family a leading company in the industry.
Even more famously, in 1994, he bought a company in the heart of London for a staggering £40 million, acquiring 14 acres of prime land.
This feat catapulted him to the top three of British landowners, behind only the British royal family and the duke. The annual rental income of these properties is as high as more than 100 million pounds, which can be described as shocking.
Soon after, Lee's father set his sights on another promising company in the UK, eventually acquiring a 20% stake. So far, the Li family's industrial territory in the UK has more than 70 restaurants, more than 60 shops, as well as many apartments and office buildings, ranking second only to the British royal family among the big landowners.
It can be said that the previous generations of Li Jiazu used their wisdom and diligence to open up their capital and pave a road to success. As of 2000, Li Deyi's personal wealth has reached 22 billion yuan, ranking 18th on the list of Hong Kong's richest people, and he is well-known.
However, despite his family's wealth, Li Deyi attaches so much importance to money, and is even a little stingy to the point of being almost paranoid. He had six children, but he lacked love for all of them, and instead focused most of his energy on protecting the family property.
In the end, he chose his illegitimate son Li Jianqin as his sole heir, because he felt that Li Jianqin was incompetent and could ensure his absolute control over the family property.
It can be seen that for Li Deyi, protecting family wealth is much more important than having children and continuing the incense. This also laid the foundation for the later divorce battle.
5. Evidence collection and litigation outwitting the wealthy
Faced with her husband Li Jianqin's unreasonable demands, Zeng Zhaoying was angry in her heart, but she did not act impulsively, but used her excellent legal professional advantages to file a divorce lawsuit at the end of 2008.
After that, she began to collect evidence of Li Jianqin's cheating in marriage, and followed the vine to find clues to the Li family's hidden property. Through unremitting efforts, she discovered an astonishing secret - Li Jianqin once transferred a huge amount of up to 300,000 Hong Kong dollars to a young Japanese lover.
For a while, Li Jianqin's arrogant remarks of "the child belongs to you, and I will leave the house" seemed ridiculous and ignorant. As a senior lawyer, Zeng Zhaoying knows better than anyone what it means to have a prenuptial agreement torn up.
According to the law, the husband and wife are fully entitled to divide the joint property equally.
With this basis, Zeng Zhaoying filed a claim of up to HK$5.4 billion with the court, demanding that the Li family pay sky-high alimony. When the complaint landed, the media was in an uproar, public opinion was boiling, and the Li family suffered unprecedented pressure from public opinion.
Although he had made all the preparations in advance, in the face of the sudden heavy blow, Li Deyi still showed a helpless look. He was secretly annoyed, how could he have thought that this daughter-in-law would be so difficult that she would stretch out her wolf claws to the family wealth.
Soon, Li Deyi came back to his senses and came to the door as soon as possible, trying to use 1. The low-priced settlement of 900 million Hong Kong dollars hit Zeng Zhaoying's determination and made her leave the Li family obediently.
However, how could Zeng Zhaoying, who knew everything about the Li family, be confused by this soap opera trick? She did not hesitate to refuse this shameless request.
In order to protect her legitimate rights and interests, Zeng Zhaoying had no choice but to make a desperate bet. She did not hesitate to sell her property, spent 50 million Hong Kong dollars in manpower and material resources, and formed a strong legal team, vowing to win or lose this lawsuit.
However, at this moment, Li Deyi made another trick. In order to continue to protect his wealth, this old fox, who was in a wealthy family and had relied on his family background, actually forged an agreement called "property conversion", in an attempt to give away all the inheritance in Li Jianqin's name at a low price of 1 Hong Kong dollar.
Fortunately, Zeng Zhaoying's elite team of lawyers was able to debunk the true face of this false agreement and make an invalid statement. After all, this agreement was hastily signed without Zeng Zhaoying's own consent, and naturally it cannot be supported at the legal level.
In this way, the two sides have a family property lawsuit, you come and go, which forges and which is blackmailed,-for-tat. Finally, at the end of 2011, the court pronounced a verdict in court, ruling that Li Jianqin needed to pay a sky-high price of up to HK$1.22 billion in child support to Zeng Zhaoying.