San Antonio Express-News (Sunday)
A SCORCHING FALLING OUT
Courts: The founder of Golden Wok is accusing her partner of misappropriating assets.
Restaurateurs Constance “Connie” Andrews and Wai
Hung “Kenneth” Lau have had a partnership of 40-plus years with such ventures as the Golden Wok Chinese restaurants and a fast-food offshoot in San Antonio.
They’ve operated a casino and Chinese cafe in Deadwood, S.D. And they’ve done some investing in real estate, buying residential rental properties in San Antonio, Las Vegas-area condominiums and property in California.
The pair have been more than business partners. They “slept in the same bed” and introduced themselves as husband and wife, Andrews says, even though they never wed.
Now, their longtime ties have unraveled.
Andrews, whose 83rd birthday is Oct. 6, has sued Lau, who turns 70 five days later, and their real estate company for fraud. Her suit, filed last month in state District Court, seeks more than $2 million in damages.
She accuses Lau of secretly misappropriating assets by using her share of partnership distributions to buy real estate solely in his name.
Andrews says she’s been fighting to get accounting records and deeds to learn how the money was spent. Real estate and corporate documents bearing her signature were prepared without her knowledge, she adds.
“I have been locked out of the business which has been rekeyed and no copy is given to me despite the fact that I am a 50% owner in the total partnership,” Andrews says in a sworn statement filed with her lawsuit.
The “last straw,” she adds, was when Lau allegedly informed her that he’s selling various businesses to friends and family.
Andrews obtained a temporary restraining order preventing him from transferring property and closing or transferring bank accounts.
The order was obtained “ex parte,” meaning no one challenged the order application on his behalf.
Lau wasn’t aware of the lawsuit, a representative said Wednesday. The Express-News emailed him the complaint, but he offered no comment. Andrews’ lawyer didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Golden Wok
Golden Wok has been a San Antonio institution for nearly five decades, routinely garnering positive reviews and ranking in surveys as a top choice among Chinese restaurants for diners.
Yet for all the plaudits heaped on Golden Wok over the decades, its principals have largely remained out of the spotlight.
According to the Golden Wok’s website, a young Andrews dreamed of owning her own Chinese restaurant.
“It didn’t matter that she was not Asian, had no cooking experience and had never cooked on a Chinese stove before,” the website says. “What she had was determination, persistence, faith and the willingness to work 18-hour days.”
Andrews opened the first Golden Wok restaurant on Sept. 6, 1972. After struggling to operate on a “shoestring budget” for its first two years, the restaurant gained in popularity.
Lau applied for a job at Golden Wok in 1974. He was raised in China and trained as a chef in Hong Kong, according to a 1985 Nation’s Restaurant News article.
He became partners with Andrews in 1976, the same year they opened a second Golden Wok location. He was quickly promoted to business manager “for all of the entities created from, merged with or created by the Golden Wok partners,” Andrews’ lawsuit says.
She designated one-half of the business to Lau and he moved in with her, the complaint adds.
Today, Golden Wok has two locations — its flagship restaurant at 8822 Wurzbach Road, and one at Marbach Road and Loop 410 West. Golden Wok draws crowds, especially for its dim sum offerings during lunch on Saturdays and Sundays.
Quik Wok
Andrews and Lau have had other restaurant successes. In 1980, the couple founded Quik Wok, a Chinese fast-food establishment, in San Antonio.
All its meals were cooked in Chinese woks. The menu featured typical takeout Chinese fare: pepper steak, chop suey, lemon chicken, almond chicken and other entrees, supplemented by egg rolls, egg drop soup, fried rice and fortune cookies, UPI reported.
They expanded Quik Wok to
eight locations in San Antonio and one in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., before deciding in 1985 to sell the business to Pillsbury Co., then the parent company of Burger King.
Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. The nine Quik Wok locations generated $4 million in sales in 1984.
At the time, Pillsbury’s CEO told the Chicago Tribune the company could eventually operate as many as 1,000 Quik Wok locations.
“We believe we’re on the ground floor of a real growth opportunity with Quik Wok,” the executive said.
Less than three years later, however, Pillsbury shut down Quik Wok and two other restaurant chains — taking a $91 million write-off.
Deadwood
Andrews and Lau’s entrepreneurial endeavors didn’t end there. They rolled the dice on opening their own casino in Deadwood, S.D., in 1990.
The couple was “charmed by this quaint little town’s ambiance and excited by the new casino gambling laws in Deadwood,” according to a 1994 report.
Their establishment was known as Miss Kitty’s Saloon, perhaps in homage to the longrunning television series “Gunsmoke.” The pair also operated an adjoining Chinese cafe.
They ultimately sold the businesses to a Washington businessman who operated them until his death in 2009. His estate shut down the casino and cafe in 2014, the Rapid City Journal reported.
Property records show Andrews and Lau turned their attention to real estate investing.
Beginning in 2011, they made the first of at least four condo purchases in the Las Vegas area. The four units have a combined taxable value of almost $750,000, according to the Clark County, Nev., appraiser’s website.
They’ve also purchased singlefamily houses in San Antonio. Andrews & Lau Rental Properties owns a roughly 950-square-foot house on Tallahasse Drive, near Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, assessed at $90,000. The company also owns a roughly 2,000square-foot house on Dover Ridge on the West Side. It’s assessed by the Bexar Appraisal District at almost $197,000.
Records show Andrews & Lau Partnership also owns a nearly 2-acre parcel off Southwest Loop 410 near Marbach Road. The vacant land is assessed at almost $650,000.
They also own assets in California, and Andrews suspects there are assets she doesn’t know about, she says in her sworn statement.
Individual purchases
In her lawsuit, Andrews says that over the past 30 years she relied “more and more on Kenneth Lau to her detriment.”
He has failed to make “a single partnership disbursement” and even placed his name on deeds on her separate property, the complaint says.
She accuses him of spending an “enormous amount of funds, far more than a generous salary, to acquire properties that he placed a great part of in his name alone.”
The lawsuit doesn’t identify the properties Andrews references.
Bexar County property records show Lau has individually made real estate purchases. In 2018, he bought a 2,000-squarefoot commercial building at
8940 Wurzbach that’s home to the Noor Grocery store. The building is assessed at $362,750.
In October, Lau acquired a 3,750-square-foot house on Morning Green in the Dominion. It’s assessed for more than $700,000. He obtained a $490,000 mortgage loan to finance the purchase. (Andrews and Lau share ownership in another home in the Dominion. It’s assessed at almost $946,000.)
Then in April, Lau executed a “transfer of death deed.” In the event of his death, the Morning Green property is slated to be conveyed to David Lau. Their relationship couldn’t immediately be determined.
Andrews alleges Kenneth Lau also made “substantial ‘gifts’ to certain employees, agents or representatives of the businesses,” a practice forbidden by their partnership agreements. One of the gifts was for as much as $1 million, her suit says.
Power of attorney
On June 14, Andrews revoked a “statutory durable power of attorney” that she previously executed in favor of Lau. It would have allowed him to handle Andrews’ financial affairs if she becomes incapacitated.
A week later, the suit says, Andrews’ attorneys sent Lau a letter demanding she be allowed to inspect all partnership and accounting records for several years. He responded with “minimal documents.”
“What was disclosed revealed or lead (sic) to the discovery of his pattern of purchasing large amount (sic) of real estate without explaining where the funds originate from,” the suit says.
Andrews says she relied on Lau’s false representations, causing her to enter into a partnership agreement to purchase businesses, property and other assets “without any accounting as to the monies received.”
As a result, Andrews says, she was unable to start or own additional restaurants because “her income was restricted to what her business partner/husband would pay her monthly.” She adds that she has been denied the rights to half of all yearly partnership profits and half of the community estate.
Her sworn statement says she’s now concerned she can’t complete a will because she has no inventory of her assets. Lau has not prepared or signed tax returns for several years, though she says they have been filed. Andrews and Lau filed separate tax returns despite living together, the lawsuit says.
Common-law marriage
A court will probably have to determine whether Andrews and Lau have a “common law marriage” because of the need to figure out ownership of substantial assets, she says in the suit.
In Texas, a common-law marriage is considered a union when two adults consent to being married without the formality of obtaining a marriage license. It’s also known as an “informal marriage.” Only seven other states allow common-law marriages.
In asking the court for an ex parte temporary restraining order, Andrews referenced Lau “fleeing to California.” That precluded her from giving him notice of the temporary restraining order application.
State District Judge Rosie Alvarado granted the order the same day the lawsuit was filed.
A hearing on a preliminary injunction was scheduled for Aug. 31 but apparently was never held — possibly because Lau has not been served with the complaint.