(March 21): Ding Yumei, the ex-wife of China Evergrande Group chairman Hui Ka Yan, faced off with liquidators in a Hong Kong court Friday, with lawyers arguing that she wasn’t sophisticated enough to understand the defaulted builder’s finances.

Ding’s legal representative said that she had never been an employee, officer or manager at the company and she has no constructive knowledge or responsibility for the company’s financial difficulties.

She is “just a housewife with no accounting background”, and wouldn’t be able to fully understand financial statements audited by PwC, according to the lawyer.

Ding was among a group of seven defendants sued by Evergrande’s liquidator last year, in an effort to recover US$6 billion (RM26.52 billion) in assets to help pay creditors after the debt-laden developer was ordered to liquidate, in one of the world’s biggest corporate implosions. While the legal battle has dragged on, creditors have so far yet to pocket a penny from the process.

For their part, Evergrande liquidators disputed Ding’s lawyers’ characterisation of her as an “unsophisticated housewife”, saying that she was involved in complicated structured lending, more “sophisticated than one normally sees”.

They also said that there are internal documents and WeChat messages regarding the business plans of Evergrande’s new energy vehicle unit that were sent to Hui, Ding and others.

The High Court of Hong Kong issued a worldwide asset freeze injunction against Ding in July, as liquidators sought to recoup about US$360 million in dividends paid to her.

Earlier this week, Judge Russell Coleman dismissed Ding’s requests for a confidentiality summons and a clarification of the existing injunction, after she sought court guidance on her obligations. The ruling also revealed that Ding has spent US$4 million since August, and she is living with her two children and two grandchildren, who are minors.

Ding has amassed US$285 million in properties in locations including the UK and Canada, according to court documents and real estate searches done by Bloomberg News. Last September, a UK court allowed her to spend as much as £20,000 (US$25,859 or RM114,378) a month after also freezing her assets in a case brought by the developer’s liquidators.

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