Henderson Land’s Martin Lee sues actress Chrissie Chau for defamation
Chairman accuses actress of spreading malicious rumours about their supposed relationship for personal fame
Martin Lee Ka-shing, chairman of Hong Kong’s Henderson Land Development, has taken an actress to court over allegedly defamatory remarks that suggested they had an illicit relationship, while also seeking damages from US tech giant Google and five YouTube channels for failing to remove “false” content.
The 54-year-old business mogul on Friday sued Chrissie Chau Sau-na in the High Court for allegedly spreading baseless and malicious rumours about their “relationship” for personal fame.
“Over the past 10 years, Mr Lee has been the target of a continuous deluge of false and made-up written and video content across mainstream media, major social media and video platforms spanning [the] Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and the broader Chinese-speaking community,” Woo Kwan Lee & Lo, the law firm representing Lee, said.
“Mr Lee believes that all reasonable ethical and legal boundaries have been crossed, and reached a stage where a reasonable person like Mr Lee could no longer tolerate.”
Lee, the younger son of late Henderson Land founder Lee Shau-kee, is seeking an unspecified amount of damages and an injunction order barring Chau, Google and five YouTube channels from publishing further statements he deems defamatory. He pledged to donate any damages he received to charity.
He asked the defendants to apologise and remove online content tied to the rumours.