BEIJING — Nina Wang, Asia’s richest woman until her death from cancer this month, has left her $4 billion estate to her fortune-teller.

Mrs. Wang, 69, died childless and had not named an heir to the Chinachem property empire she built up from the business of her husband, Teddy, who was kidnapped by gangsters in 1990 and never seen again.

But reports in the Hong Kong press that a will, dated last year, names Tony Chan Chun-chuen as its sole beneficiary — albeit with a clause that the fortune-teller should use the money in a “good and proper way” — are likely to herald a new round of legal battles over her wealth. Two years ago, she won an exhaustive fight against her father-in-law, Wang Din-sin, over her husband’s third and final will. He had accused her of forging it.

Most people in Hong Kong, who had followed the original case and appeals with fascination, thought her death had finally brought the 15-year saga to a close. It had been said that her wealth would be placed in a charitable trust.

Both the Apple Daily and Standard newspapers reported yesterday that her business empire was left to Mr. Chan.

A fortune-teller to the stars, he is said to have been introduced to Mrs. Wang by a fellow tycoon, and to have been in charge of arrangements for her elaborate funeral on Wednesday.

Another will, dating from 2002, contained instructions to put the money into Mrs. Wang’s own charity.

Among the provisions were for the establishment of an international awards scheme, similar to the Nobel prize. Despite the long battle between them, the will also contained some provision for her father-in-law, now 96.

Though neither her lawyer nor her sisters and brothers have commented publicly, The Apple Daily claimed that her family were upset by the second will, not made in the presence of a lawyer, and are determined to challenge it.

Mrs. Wang, who had met her husband as a girl in Shanghai before they fled to Hong Kong around the time of the communist takeover, was a flamboyant businesswoman.

Wearing pigtails, miniskirts, and bobby socks more suited to a teenager, she encouraged the use of her nickname, Little Sweetie.

She and her husband were celebrated for their thrift — she claimed she had no time to spend money and preferred fast food to fine dining.

In 2005, a triad gang member said Mr. Wang had been killed and that his body thrown overboard from a boat in the South China Sea.