NEWARK, N.J. — When Taiwanese plastics magnate Wang Yung-ching died last year at age 91, he left behind a legacy as one of the world’s 200 richest people, a wife and nine children born to other women — but no will.
Those offspring are now jockeying for pieces of his billions in a battle so complex that a lawyer for one of his children opened arguments Thursday in probate court by displaying an elaborate family tree and a diagram of Wang’s holdings in several countries.
None of the children is from Wang’s wife of more than 70 years, Wang Yueh Lan, who lives in Taiwan, is considered his legal widow and stands to inherit half her husband’s fortune. She has granted power of attorney to 58-year-old Winston Wong, Wang’s oldest son, who uses a different English spelling of the same last name, a common practice.
Critics say Wong wants the case decided in the United States only because the other common-law wives won’t be recognized here.
