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Case file s411 · Divorce and feuds · 2008
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2008
Died
Wang Yung-ching, October 15, 2008
Place
Taipei and Bermuda · Caribbean islands
Field
petrochemicals · Business and finance on the timeline
Legal tradition
Bermuda trust law; Privy Council
Historical event
Taiwan's largest private industrial group
Divorce and feudsDied without a willNowNorth AmericaEast AsiaCaribbean islands
AI illustration: A petrochemical complex on the Taiwan coast
Illustration made with AI for celebrity.estate.

Formosa Plastics' founder died without a will, and his son sued to unwind $15 billion placed in Bermuda trusts

Wang Yung-ching founded Formosa Plastics and became one of Taiwan's richest men. He died in 2008 in New Jersey, reportedly without a will†. Much of his wealth had been moved into Bermuda trusts holding Formosa Plastics shares. In 2013 his son Winston Wong sued in Bermuda to unwind the transfer of about $15 billion in assets into four non-charitable offshore trusts, naming the trust companies and his father's longtime financial adviser. Winston argued the transfers were invalid; the trusts' side said they protected the group's control. In June 2022 the Bermuda Supreme Court upheld the validity of all five trusts, though Winston won a claim to his father's share of assets in one trust created after the death. On 8 December 2022 the Privy Council ruled on joint appeals by Winston and his cousin Tony Wang in Wong Wen-Young v Grand View Private Trust Company [2022] UKPC 47, on when a trust fails because its purpose has gone. The final allocation of the trust assets is not confirmed here†.

What the law took from it

Purpose trusts can keep a company together after the founder dies, but heirs left out of them will test their validity in court.

Sources
  1. Internet ArchiveGovernment record
  2. royalgazette.comPress
  3. insightplus.bakermckenzie.comPress
  4. lidw.co.ukPress

Cite as: celebrity.estate, “Formosa Plastics' founder died without a will, and his son sued to unwind $15 billion placed in Bermuda trusts,” story s411, https://www.celebrity.estate/plastics-2008, updated 30 October 2026.

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Where this case sits

Divorce and feudsDied without a willNowNorth AmericaEast AsiaCaribbean islands