[Tango-L] Wall St Jrnl: Banker Now Regards $15.4 Million Lessons As a Serious Misstep

[Nitin Kibe]

More on the Hong Kong banker and her instructors, lessons, fees, etc etc on 
Thursday's Wall Street Journal front page, the daily "human interest" story. 
  Included is a little aside from a HK AT teacher who charges a mere $70 per 
hour.

Best to all.

NK

Wash DC

PS: I am still not sure whether the numbers in the article are in HK$ (8 HK$ 
= 1 US$) or US$, but the WSJ normally qualifies $ if it is not US$.  In any 
case, it's still large numbers.

******************

Banker Now Regards $15.4 Million Lessons As a Serious Misstep --- Ms. Wong 
Sues Dance Coach Who Called Her 'a Cow'; Pursuit of Ballroom Glory

By Kate Linebaugh
1247 words
3 August 2006
The Wall Street Journal
A1
English
(Copyright (c) 2006, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
HONG KONG -- As the top Asia private banker for HSBC Holdings PLC, Mimi 
Monica Wong knows how to make wealth last. But these days, she is better 
known for the millions she lost perfecting her rumba.

Two years ago, Ms. Wong agreed to pay $15.4 million for eight years of 
unlimited Latin-dance instruction. About half of that sum she paid up front, 
in cash. The 61-year-old widow recently said she was "looking for the last 
bit of glory in life."

But the arrangement soured even before it took effect. Now Ms. Wong is suing 
her dance instructors in a Hong Kong court seeking the return of her $8 
million pre-payment. The instructors, 15-time world Latin dance champion 
Gaynor Fairweather, of the U.K., and her Italian husband Mirko Saccani, are 
countersuing for the $7.4 million outstanding under the agreement.

Hong Kong has no shortage of big spenders. Home to some of Asia's great 
fortunes, the city of about seven million boasts the most Rolls-Royces per 
capita in the world. Yet even here, the equivalent of $5,000 a day for eight 
years is a lot to pay for dance lessons.

"It's just ridiculous," says Keith McNab, an Argentine tango instructor in 
Hong Kong who charges about $70 an hour. "No one could actually take enough 
lessons to make it worth it."

In a letter to a local newspaper, a Hong Kong civil servant said such sums 
could inspire a career change. "Ladies, I am now available to give dancing 
lessons," wrote John Shanahan, a senior officer at the city's anticorruption 
watchdog. "Payments are accepted in advance. Pole dancing costs extra."

But for many women in high-society Hong Kong, dancing is serious business. 
At glitzy charity balls, Chinese tycoons sometimes turn into wallflowers as 
their wives dip and twirl in the arms of a paid partner -- often a younger 
Western man. Among this crowd, it's not uncommon to fork over $500 for an 
afternoon social event called a "tea dance."

Hong Kong has "some of the craziest prices in the world," says Walter Wat, 
president of the Hong Kong Ballroom Dancing Council.

The sums approach the stratosphere when a dancer hits the international 
"pro-am" circuit, where aspiring amateur dancers, mostly female, take part 
in competitions with professional partners. Daily lessons are necessary to 
master the five dances that make up competitive Latin ballroom -- cha-cha, 
rumba, samba, jive and paso doble. There are also travel expenses, entry 
fees and the cost of costumes for two.

It was this kind of dancing that grabbed Ms. Wong. She rose to the top, just 
as she had in private banking, and she loved it. "It's like, you know, 
winning Wimbledon," she said in a recorded conversation with a friend that 
was referred to in court. Ms. Wong, Ms. Fairweather and Mr. Saccani all 
declined to comment for this article.

Off the dance floor, Ms. Wong has an impressive resume. A graduate of 
Columbia University, she worked her way up HSBC, the world's biggest bank by 
assets, to become head of its private banking business in Asia. The daughter 
of a Hong Kong shipping magnate, Ms. Wong is known for her composure, 
elegance and perfectionism at any cost.

In 2000, Ms. Wong began taking lessons from Ms. Fairweather, who ruled the 
Latin dance world for 15 years with her then-partner Donnie Burns. The pair 
is credited with injecting a new flair to the form, and for slowing down the 
samba to allow for more swagger, according to Hong Kong dance teachers. For 
their service to dance, each was awarded an Order of the British Empire, a 
lesser honor than knighthood.

Under Ms. Fairweather's tutelage, Ms. Wong increasingly devoted herself to 
dancing. Often she would dash away from work at lunch for two hours of 
lessons, only to put in two more at the end of the day, according to 
statements made in court. Ms. Fairweather would labor over her student's 
dress designs, drawing floral patterns and hiring seamstresses to affix 
hundreds of Swarovski crystal beads, she testified in court. "To me, she was 
everything," the 49-year-old Ms. Fairweather told the court.

After two years of instruction with just Ms. Fairweather, Mr. Saccani became 
part of the package. According to court statements, Mr. Saccani instigated 
longer-term contracts with Ms. Wong for greater and greater sums, paid well 
in advance. After he began instructing Ms. Wong, according to court 
testimony, he bought a Ferrari.

In 2002, Ms. Wong paid $135,000 for a fixed number of lessons and 
competitions. Shortly afterward, she shelled out $1.3 million for a two-year 
package of unlimited lessons until 2004.

The work paid off. With Mr. Saccani as her partner at the 2003 Emerald Ball 
Dancesport Championships in Los Angeles, Ms. Wong won the title of "Top Gold 
Lady."

On top of what she had spent already, Ms. Wong then agreed to pay $15.4 
million over eight years for exclusive access to Ms. Fairweather's and Mr. 
Saccani's services.

Ms. Wong swallowed the high prices because "she was desperate to continue 
and could not bear to throw away all her hard work," according to her 
closing statement to the court.

What upended the multimillion-dollar dance partnership was an incident on a 
Wednesday afternoon in August of 2004. At the Li Hua restaurant, a favorite 
afternoon dance venue, Ms. Wong and a group of other women were taking part 
in a mock competition.

That day, the banker was heavier in her step than usual, according to 
statements in court. In front of fellow dancers, Mr. Saccani shouted at her 
to "move your arse," and called Ms. Wong a "lazy cow," according to court 
documents.

Other dance teachers testified his verbal abuse contained threats of 
physical violence. Instructor Philip Redmond told the court he heard Mr. 
Saccani say, "If you do it again, Monica, I'll smash your head against the 
wall." Mr. Saccani denies having said anything beyond some "motivational" 
language, though he admits to shouting expletives at her.

Two days later, she cut short another practice session. That night, in the 
taped conversation submitted to the court, she told a friend that the money 
involved was "stupid," "crazy" and "completely out of hand." The two sides 
fell out further over the following days and Ms. Wong quickly won a court 
order to freeze the bank accounts of her instructors.

Ms. Fairweather and Mr. Saccani say they remain ready to fulfill the terms 
of the contract. "It's not fair to have such love and work put into a person 
and one day she's not there," Ms. Fairweather told the court.

The publicity around Ms. Wong's case hasn't been good for a private banker, 
a job that prizes discretion, other bankers say. However, HSBC stands behind 
its banker, and after a brief leave of absence to attend the two-week 
hearing, she is back at work helping Asia's wealthy plan their financial 
future. A judgment in the court case is expected later this summer.

At night, there is still the cha-cha. Ms. Wong has a new instructor, whom 
she is paying, according to statements in court, $21,000 a month.