THE wife of an African politician is suing a businessman she claims failed to repay $702 million from the sale of diamonds on her behalf.
In a High Court writ filed on Friday, Sabina Wan Soi-fan, 38, also known as Zhang Sabina Soi-fan, says she gave 63,090 carats of raw diamonds to Chun Kam-chiu to sell in 1998. She says that in a letter of guarantee dated October 9 that year and executed at the Democratic Republic of Congo Embassy in Beijing, Chun accepted the diamonds' value was US$93 million (HK$720 million).
The writ says Chun agreed to sell the diamonds for at least the agreed value, or less with Wan's approval. She also let him invest the sale's proceeds, but he had to repay the full $720 million after the one-year contract expired.
The writ claims that when the contract expired on October 8 last year, Chun made only a partial repayment of $17,719,360, despite repeated demands from Wan.
Wan, the wife of Dr Vundauwe-te-Pemako, former parliamentary president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, is demanding repayment of the outstanding amount, about $702 million.
In the District Court on September 7 this year, Wan was given a four-month suspended jail term for falsely denying being bankrupt during court proceedings in 1998. She had pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to mislead an Independent Commission Against Corruption officer and two counts of perjury.
