The mother of a West Vancouver multimillionaire killed outside his British Properties mansion in 2015 has filed a lawsuit against the administrators of her son’s estate for a loan she claims she is owed.
Zhifang Wang, the mother of the late Gang Yuan, filed the lawsuit in B.C. Supreme Court, claiming that she made a verbal agreement with her son in August 2014 to loan Yuan $5 million U.S.
According to the statement of claim, Wang advanced the money to Yuan on April 2, 2015, with terms that it be repaid six months later.
A month later, however, Yuan was killed at his home at 963 King Georges Way in West Vancouver and his body left chopped up into many pieces.
Li Zhao, the husband of Yuan’s cousin, was arrested at the scene. He is currently on trial in B.C. Supreme Court for the second-degree murder of Yuan.
Yuan, a wealthy businessman, was 42 when he died, and did not leave a will.
The value of the estate has been estimated at more than $20 million.
According to Wang’s statement of claim, she has demanded payment from the administrators of the estate but has not been paid.
In a statement of defence filed in court, lawyers for the estate administrators said the parties communicated in February and April of 2016, but did not resolve the issue.
“Among other things the plaintiff adduced no documents or particulars in support of her claim,” they stated.
The estate administrators said the money in the dispute belonged to Yuan “having been the proceeds from the previous sale of property in China legally and/or beneficially owned by the deceased.”
The statement of defence added there are other court cases in B.C. Supreme Court in which the estate administrators have lodged claims against Wang, claiming she is holding property in trust for the estate.
The lawsuit launched by Yuan’s mother is just the latest in a series connected to the deceased millionaire.
In June, Zhao – who is still on trial accused of killing Yuan – filed a suit against Yuan’s estate, claiming he’s owed more than $1 million from a business deal between the two.
At least five women have also filed suits claiming their children were fathered by Yuan and are therefore heirs to his estate.
In March, a woman also filed a lawsuit claiming that she was the common law spouse of Yuan, and therefore entitled to more than half of Yuan’s estate.
At Zhao’s murder trial, which began in the spring, Crown prosecutors played a videotaped police statement in which Zhao – speaking to a police officer in Mandarin – described how he shot Yuan in the driveway of the West Vancouver mansion after the two men got into an argument, then used an electric saw to cut up his body.
The trial is scheduled to continue in B.C. Supreme Court.
