Walter Kwok, Hong Kong Developer Who Survived Kidnapping, Dies at 68 (Published 2018)
- ️Mon Oct 22 2018
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- Oct. 22, 2018
HONG KONG — Walter Kwok, a Hong Kong property tycoon who was kidnapped and held for ransom in 1997 and later ousted, in a dramatic family conflict, from the business his father had founded, died on Saturday in Hong Kong. He was 68.
His wife, Wendy Kwok, confirmed his death in a statement but did not specify the cause. He had been hospitalized since August after having a stroke.
Mr. Kwok was one of Hong Kong’s most prominent developers when he was targeted by a mainland gangster who had an audacious plan to kidnap the city’s richest businessmen and ransom them for tens of millions of dollars.
The gangster, Cheung Tze-keung, known by the nickname Big Spender for his profligate ways in Macau casinos, kidnapped Mr. Kwok in September 1997, nearly three months after Hong Kong was returned to Chinese control.
Mr. Kwok was held in a hut in a remote area of Hong Kong’s New Territories. The kidnappers beat him and locked him in a wooden cage after he initially refused to call his family. He was released a week later for a ransom of nearly $80 million.
The year before, the same gang had kidnapped Victor Li, the son of the tycoon Li Ka-shing, who was freed after a ransom of about $125 million was paid.