Dairy queen owes sex compo

May Wang. Photo / NZ Herald

The woman behind a $1.5 billion dairy farm bid owned a collapsed hotel chain, in which her husband was accused of "inappropriate touching" and "sexual harassment" of a staff member.

Property developer May Wang, who is the frontwoman for the Hong Kong-based bid for more than 20 North Island farms, says she has now split up with her husband and the hotel has been sold.

Wang lives in a palatial, $5 million clifftop home in St Heliers, but the mail has piled up in the box as she pursues business interests in Asia.

The Herald on Sunday revealed last week that she is being investigated by the Inland Revenue Department.

She is listed in Companies Office documents as the link to Hong Kong's Natural Dairy (NZ) Holdings, which has announced an agreement to buy dairy farms and other assets for $1.5 billion.

But a chef at her hotel in Methven says he never received the comparatively paltry $15,000 in compensation for constructive dismissal, unpaid wages and legal costs ordered by the Employment Relations Authority after his wife was sexually harassed there.

Michael Franks says he was astounded to see May Wang resurface fronting a huge bid for dairy farms.

"We weren't paid at all. Now she says she has $1.5 billion to buy these farms ... I can't understand how the system let it happen. If she can run around like that then she can afford to pay her debts."

May Wang's involvement in the dairy bid has raised questions about the collapse of the Dynasty group of companies, which ran hotels and developed properties.

She owned and was director of the group of six failed companies, which owed at least $2 million - and she is currently facing charges in the Auckland District Court over failing to answer questions about the businesses.

The Herald on Sunday has found her former husband Thomas Wang was named in an Employment Relations Authority action against one of the failed companies, Dynasty Methven.

The legal action was taken by Mayfield's Michael Franks for unpaid wages after he was hired as the resort hotel's executive chef. He was awarded $15,000 but has not received the money.

Franks said Thomas Wang was sent to Methven to run the hotel and it turned into a shambles. He said he rang May Wang and she said: "Well, he's my husband. What do you want me to do about it?"

The authority accepted Franks' claim - and also accepted that Thomas Wang had sexually harassed and inappropriately touched the chef's wife Izumi.

In the authority ruling, Franks was recorded stating that Thomas Wang was "more a hindrance than a help" running the hotel.

He would socialise with junior kitchen staff - who had been hired from China - who would turn up late and hung over.

The authority said evidence showed Thomas Wang "developed an inappropriate interest" in Izumi, who was hired as a housemaid, and sexually harassed her.

Izumi Franks quit, followed by Michael Franks after he refused an order to report for work early and lay tables in the restaurant. Authority member James Crichton found he had been constructively dismissed.

The authority said effort had gone into getting the Dynasty group into the hearing to represent itself - but no one turned up.

The liquidator's report into the failed Dynasty group also found problems getting May Wang to answer questions about the collapse.

Natural Dairy (NZ) Holdings spokesman Bill Ralston provided an emailed statement from May Wang, whom he said was in Asia.

She said her marriage had been of a "short duration" only, and she did not learn of the employment ruling until long after the Methven hotel had gone under and been sold.

Regarding her involvement in the farm deal, she said the money belonged to her financial backers in China and elsewhere, not to her.