A wealthy Sydney businessman who became concerned he might be experiencing heart problems made a remarkable entry in his diary: “The above can also count as the Will.” Two days later, Jianping Shen was dead, leaving his family locked in a legal battle over a multimillion-dollar estate spread across Australia and China.
NSW Supreme Court Justice Stephen Free has ruled that the handwritten note, dated May 22, 2023, constituted Mr Shen’s valid final will. Under the judgment, 40 per cent of the estate goes to his carer and de facto partner, Eva Wu, while 60 per cent—along with all shares in the family company structure—goes to his favoured grandson, Gordon Dang.
The court dismissed allegations by Mr Shen’s only daughter, Yun Shen, that the diary entry had been fabricated. Justice Free described the forgery theory as “bordering on the absurd”.
“The proposition that Ms Wu snuck away from the attention of others and had the physical and emotional composure to perform a sophisticated and time-consuming forgery, without being detected by any of the other people in the house, is entirely implausible,” Justice Free wrote.
Mr Shen died suddenly from cardiac arrest on May 24, 2023, aged 77. His extensive estate included properties in Sydney, Shanghai and Beijing, luxury Mercedes vehicles, interests in several companies and significant Chinese investments.
Court evidence showed that the overseas holdings included a Chinese company containing more than $13 million in compensation payments, a listed share portfolio valued at roughly $5 million and considerable cash reserves.
Justice Free noted that ownership of the Chinese company was transferred into Ms Shen’s name in 2024, while the share portfolio was subsequently sold or transferred.
Freezing orders were later secured in Australia and China, restricting dealings with some of the disputed assets as the inheritance proceedings continued.
Jianping Shen’s favoured grandson Gordon Dang (pictured) was awarded 60 per cent of his grandfather’s substantial fortune, on the condition that he change his surname to Shen
NSW Supreme Court Justice Stephen Free ruled that Jianping Shen’s handwritten diary entry from May 22, 2023 (pictured), was his valid final will
Mr Shen’s wide-ranging estate included homes in Sydney, Shanghai and Beijing, including this property in the sought-after Connells Point area
The judgment also found that Gordon, Ms Shen and her de facto partner, Lei Dang, went back to Mr Shen’s home the day after his death and took documents from a locked filing cabinet. When Ms Wu returned later, she discovered the cabinet had been forced open and emptied.
The central piece of evidence was a handwritten diary entry Mr Shen made on May 22. In it, he wrote that he had begun experiencing “physical discomfort” and believed he might have heart disease.
The note directed 60 per cent of his assets, including the family trust, to his “eldest nephew”. Justice Free found that wording was intended to refer to his grandson Gordon. The remaining 40 per cent was to be given to “the last person taking care of” him.
The entry ended with an unusual declaration: “The Will shall be done in the next few days. The above can also count as the Will!”
Ms Shen and Gordon, who describes himself on LinkedIn as a Sydney-based full-time consultant with professional services firm Deloitte, initially claimed the entry was forged. The dispute led to competing handwriting evidence and detailed examination of Mr Shen’s health and circumstances during the final years of his life.
Justice Free ultimately accepted testimony from forensic handwriting expert Kiki Wong, a former Scotland Yard specialist, who concluded that Mr Shen himself had written the diary entry.
The will dispute was the latest development in a long-running breakdown in relations between Mr Shen and his daughter.
Before he died, Mr Shen had brought Supreme Court proceedings against Ms Shen and Mr Dang, seeking the repayment of approximately $2.38 million in alleged unpaid loans, together with interest.
Forensic handwriting expert Kiki Wong (pictured), a former Scotland Yard specialist, told the court that Mr Shen had written the disputed diary entry
He also sought the transfer of shares connected to a Blakehurst property and repayment of rental income he claimed Lei Dang had received from another jointly owned investment property.
The court heard the relationship had deteriorated so badly that Mr Shen told his lawyer he was deeply disappointed in his daughter and did not intend to leave her anything further in his will.
He described Lei Dang as ‘trash’, claimed his daughter ‘only sees me for money’, and told a friend he wanted to move house ‘to get myself away from my daughter’s family’.
The estrangement worsened after Ms Shen reconciled with Lei Dang following a domestic violence incident in 2019 in which he was charged with assault.
In one message, Mr Shen told his daughter: ‘If you still aren’t clearheaded, we can only sever our father-daughter relationship. If he beats you to death again, you deserve it.’
The court heard Mr Shen later moved from his Blakehurst home partly because he wanted distance from his daughter’s family and because Ms Shen and Lei Dang knew the access code to the property.
While Ms Shen and Gordon challenged Ms Wu’s claim that she was Mr Shen’s de facto partner, they ultimately accepted she had cared for him in the years before his death.
Justice Free rejected attacks on Ms Wu’s credibility, including suggestions she had exaggerated her grief and improperly benefited from the purchase of a Sydney apartment.
The court accepted Ms Wu’s evidence that her relationship with Mr Shen became romantic in 2019 after he asked her to be his girlfriend following a stay in hospital.
As the Covid pandemic unfolded, Ms Wu became increasingly involved in Mr Shen’s life, buying groceries, preparing meals, driving him to medical appointments, collecting medications, cleaning his home and helping manage his affairs.
By late 2020, she was spending much of her time living with him.
The following year, they searched together for a new home before Mr Shen purchased a property at Connells Point, where Ms Wu stayed regularly while caring for him and her own mother.
By contrast, several witnesses called by Ms Shen sought to downplay the significance of the relationship.
One childhood friend claimed Mr Shen had described Ms Wu merely as a friend and translator, while another alleged Mr Shen said she was not his ‘type’ and was ‘kind of greedy’.
Justice Free rejected those claims, finding they were inconsistent with Mr Shen’s own WeChat messages praising Ms Wu as kind-hearted and crediting her with caring for his health and well-being.
The court also heard that Mr Shen sent flirtatious messages to a travel agent and at one stage described himself as ‘alone, lonely, but free’.
While the judge acknowledged those exchanges were embarrassing for Ms Wu, he found they did not undermine the overwhelming evidence that Mr Shen and Ms Wu were in a stable, long-term romantic relationship.
The judge pointed to a series of messages that painted a very different picture from that advanced by Ms Shen and Gordon.
In one message Mr Shen told Ms Wu: ‘Believe in yourself, you have found a man who takes care of you for a lifetime.’
In another, after buying her a city apartment, he wrote: ‘Let’s grow old together, I love you.’
He also referred to Ms Wu as his girlfriend, introduced her as his wife to his GP and repeatedly told friends and relatives she was the person who cared for him and supported him in Australia.
The court heard Mr Shen’s solicitor, William Ying of STC Lawyers, drafted an earlier will in 2021, which has never been found.
That document allegedly left half of the estate to Gordon and half to Ms Wu, while requiring Gordon to change his surname from Dang to Shen in order to receive his inheritance.
When Mr Ying questioned why he was excluding his daughter, Mr Shen reportedly replied that Ms Wu was ‘the only person here in Australia who really cares for me’.
According to evidence accepted by the court, he told his lawyer: ‘She is my companion. She deserves to be taken care of when I’m gone.’
The Harrington Street apartment in The Rocks (pictured) was bought by Mr Shen for $1.93million in 2022 and later described as a gift for Eva Wu ‘to enjoy in your old age’
The earlier will similarly described Ms Wu as ‘very caring and loving’ while recording Mr Shen’s disappointment with Ms Shen, whom he said ‘only sees me for money’.
Meanwhile, Gordon remained the clear favourite.
The court heard Mr Shen shared an especially close bond with his grandson, whom he had helped raise and cared for throughout much of his childhood.
Mr Shen told Ms Wu that Gordon was the only grandchild he truly felt connected to, while Gordon gave evidence that he visited his grandfather several times a week after school, helping in the garden and around the house.
The businessman’s affection for his grandson was reflected in messages tendered to the court. In one exchange, Mr Shen told Gordon: ‘As long as you insist on not giving him [Lei Dang] a single cent to enjoy, all of Grandpa’s wealth will be yours to inherit.’
In another, he wrote: ‘As for my other assets, I’ll make a will at a law firm and gift them all to you.’
The relationship suffered when Mr Shen became estranged from Ms Shen in 2020, but the pair reconciled in 2022 after Mr Shen, accompanied by Ms Wu, visited Gordon at the Telstra store where he worked.
Before the meeting, Mr Shen told Ms Wu he missed his grandson and was proud of him.
A further twist emerged during the case when lawyer Sabrina Cai contacted Haijun Zhou, Mr Shen’s actual eldest nephew, and explained that if the diary will’s reference to the ‘eldest nephew’ was interpreted literally he could inherit 60 per cent of the estate and control of the family trust.
According to evidence accepted by the court, Zhou immediately dismissed the suggestion, replying: ‘That doesn’t sound right. I’m sure my uncle meant Gordon instead of me.’
Justice Free ultimately agreed, ruling that Gordon was the person Mr Shen intended when he referred to his ‘eldest nephew’.
The judge declared Gordon entitled to 60 per cent of the estate and all shares in the family company structure, while Ms Wu was declared to be the ‘last person’ who cared for Mr Shen and awarded the remaining 40 per cent.
Ms Shen’s challenge to the diary will was dismissed.
