Hong Kong police on Thursday charged fortune teller Tony Chan with forgery, more than a year after he lost a claim on the estimated $13 billion estate of late property tycoon Nina Wang.

Chan's unsuccessful bid for Wang's massive fortune generated blanket media coverage in the former British colony, where many tycoons are household names.

The former bartender-turned-fortune-teller built a career advising clients including Wang on feng shui, an ancient Chinese belief system based on harnessing natural and spiritual energies.

A High Court judge last year ruled that a will in Chan's possession was a fake, siding with a claim by the billionaire's charity now run by her siblings.

Police said Thursday that a 51-year-old male had been arrested and charged with one count of forgery and one count of using a false instrument.

A police spokeswoman declined to confirm reports it was Chan, but said "you can expect he is the man."

In a statement Thursday, authorities said that "after extensive police investigation and having sought advice from the Department of Justice, the subject male is formally charged today and he will be brought before the Eastern Magistracy this afternoon."

Chan -- who claimed he was Wang's long-time lover -- had been free on bail of HK$5 million ($640,000) following his initial arrest last year on suspicion that he forged the will, but was not formally charged until Thursday.

In February, an appeals court turned down his bid to overturn the original court ruling.

Earlier this month, Chan filed notice that he would take his case to the city's top adjudicator, the Court of Final Appeal.

Known for her outlandish dress and thrifty nature, Wang, who was at one stage was Asia's richest woman, died of cancer in April 2007 at the age of 69, triggering the bitter feud over her fortune.

Wang's husband Teddy, who started the family's Chinachem Group property empire, was abducted in 1990 and declared legally dead in 1999. His body has never been found.

His disappearance kicked off a heated legal battle between Wang and her father-in-law for control of the Chinachem Group, one of Hong Kong's biggest developers. She eventually won the case just two years before her own death.