Ve Wong: put shares in other names, and your heirs must sue for them

Ve Wong's honorary chairman, 頴川建忠, kept the shares of his family's holding companies in other people's names for decades: his chief aide's, a cousin's, his staff's, his sons'. The paper that proved they were his sat with his finance department. Dementia was diagnosed in 2016; he died in August 2023, aged 100. Three years on, his five children are in court in Taipei, and by the brothers' account in Japan, over certificates nobody will produce, and the estate cannot be divided.

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A fruit king dies in 1993, and his body waits four years for burial while his children fight

Ve Wong 味王, maker of Taiwan's best-known MSG and 王子麵 instant noodles, was incorporated on 4 July 1959 as China Fermentation Industry and listed in Taipei in 1964, its disclosure filings show. Among its founders, by press accounts, was 陳查某 (1897–1993), the banana exporter Taiwan called the fruit king. When he died in 1993 his children fought over the estate, and his body waited four years for burial. In June 2003 a Taipei court had to appoint a temporary manager for one of his companies, 萬裕建設, which still had no chairman to replace him. The last of about NT$1.07bn in estate tax was collected in February 2012.

The eldest son builds a fruit group holding 7.8 per cent of Ve Wong, and an aide runs it

His eldest son, 陳建忠, later 頴川建忠 and a Japanese national, built the 大洋僑果 fruit-import group, about a dozen private companies. Three of them sit on Ve Wong's board: at the June 2024 election 大洋僑果, 僑果企業 and 全青 held 18.6 million of its 240 million shares, 7.8 per cent. By press accounts the group also holds key stakes in the parent of 民視, Formosa Television. He returned to chair Ve Wong in 2003, during a debt crisis, and stepped back from management around 2014 for health reasons. His long-time aide, 陳清福, represents 大洋僑果 and chairs Ve Wong today.

The chairman parks shares in an aide's and a cousin's names, and the only proof sits with his staff

He did not hold the group in his own name. To spread the shareholding, the 2022 judgment records, he registered shares over decades to other people: 陳清福, staff, his cousin 陳月鳳, and his wife, sons and daughters. The nominees signed undertakings and transfer forms; the certificates, the parties say, were kept by the group's finance department, in an office safe or a bank deposit box. No document in the rulings read says what was to happen if he lost capacity or died. Taiwan calls the arrangement 借名登記; the courts treat it like a mandate, which Civil Code art 550 ends on the death of either party.

Doctors diagnose dementia in 2016, and a Taipei court hands his affairs to a city bureau in 2018

Capacity went first. National Taiwan University Hospital diagnosed dementia in September 2016. That autumn and winter, the court later found, he told management meetings that every share was his, that the nominee arrangements were ending, and that his second son, 頴川欽和, would handle the return. The second son says his elder and younger brothers, 頴川浩和 and 頴川萬和, took certificates in 2016; the brothers say their father gave them shares on 14 May 2017. In February 2018 the court placed him under assisted guardianship and, the children unable to agree who should assist him, appointed Taipei's Social Affairs Bureau.

A Taipei court orders the aide to return 4,478,747 shares in 2022, a year before the owner dies at 100

The first lawsuit was fought over his voice. When he sued 陳清福 in 2020 for return of the shares, the bureau refused consent, saying it could not tell what he wanted, and the claim was dismissed in June 2020 until a family court gave permission that December. In November 2021 the psychologist appointed to assist him told the court that he no longer recognised people. On 11 March 2022 the Taipei District Court ordered 陳清福 to endorse 4,478,747 shares in 11 group companies back to him; by his children's account he did not appeal. 頴川建忠 died on 24 August 2023, aged 100, with his five children as heirs.

Three heirs sue for NT$1.52bn in shares in 2024, and the nominees tell the court the certificates are gone

Then the certificates went missing. In March 2024 the second son and both daughters sued the remaining nominees, for shares the court later valued at NT$1.52bn. The two brothers refused to join; in February 2025 the High Court held they had good reason, since they claim part of the shares as the 2017 gift and have sued in Japan. In April 2025 the nominees told the court the certificates were not in their hands. Ten group companies ignored requests to say where they were and were fined NT$20,000 each; on 30 January 2026 the High Court quashed the fines. No court has yet ruled who owns the shares.

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If your family's shares sit in the names of people who do not own them

Many Taiwanese and overseas Chinese family groups still hold companies the way this one did: shares registered to a trusted manager, a cousin, a son, the real owner's claim resting on undertakings in a drawer. The questions worth settling while everyone is alive are short. Is there a signed document for every block, and who keeps the certificates? If the owner could not sign tomorrow, who decides, and is that written down? After him, does one named person carry the family's claims, or must every heir agree? Asking is stewardship. The answers decide whether the next decade is spent running the group or proving who owns it.