The elderly woman at the center of a vehicular homicide case and a civil wrongful death case stemming from the horrific March 24 crash at West Portal that killed a family of four is now accused of trying to shield her wealth from the wrongful death suit.

79-year-old Mary Fong Lau stands accused of four counts of vehicular manslaughter for the March 16, 2024 wrong-way crash outside the West Portal Muni station, which killed Diego Cardoso de Oliveira, 40, and Matilde Moncado Ramos Pinto, 38, along with their 1-year-old boy Joaquin and their 2-month-old infant Caue. Lau's SUV was speeding going the wrong way on a one-way street — possibly after mistaking her gas pedal for her brake — when her car allegedly plowed into the family of four, who were waiting at a bus stop on their way to the SF Zoo.

As KRON4 now reports, the families of Ramos Pinto and Cardoso de Oliveira, who have already filed a wrongful death claim against Lau, have now sued her for attempting to hide her wealth from the civil claim.

Attorneys with the law firm Quadra & Coll are asking a court to block Lau from making any more transfers of real estate holdings. The suit cites three properties, a house at 250 Crestlake Drive, another house at 155 Pixley Street, and a commercial building 2969, which belonged to Lau until they were recently transferred to various LLCs, as KRON4 reports.

According to the suit, "Lau, in her individual capacity and as trustee for the Mary F. Lau Revocable Trust, transferred real property with actual intent to hinder, delay, or defraud plaintiffs. Lau’s attorneys did not disclose (in court filings) that Lau was transferring assets out of her name."

An attorney for Lau, Seth Morris, suggests this is all just a misunderstanding, and Lau was simply "reorganizing" her assets after the accident for her own reasons.

"In the aftermath of the accident, Ms. Lau and her family sought professional help from legal, financial, medical, and mental health consultants. While Ms. Lau was advised to reorganize her property holdings in the months following the accident, none of these transfers were intended to evade potential damages arising from this heartbreaking event," Morris said in a statement to KRON4.

Furthermore, Morris says, Ms. Lau "acknowledges the immense suffering of those who lost loved ones and understands their families deserve to be compensated for their very unfortunate loss."

Lau was charged in the criminal case last July, and in October, we learned that an eyewitness at the scene had heard Lau admit that she had mistaken the gas pedal for the brake — though the case has not made it to trial and Lau has not admitted any guilt.