Quan Li, the former head of a much-publicized charity to save endangered South China tigers, is embroiled in a messy divorce involving charges of misuse of funds to finance a lavish lifestyle.

The fund is supported by celebrities such as Jackie Chan, actress Michelle Yeoh, film director Chen Kaige, businessman David Tang, TV presenter Coco Jiang Yi and pianist Lang Lang. Fashion house Shanghai Tang has collaborated and released tiger children's collection.

Quan is represented by Ayesha Vardag, dubbed the "diva of divorce" cases in London.

The charity funds came up in a divorce hearing in the Family Division of London's High Court on December 17. More than 50 million pounds (US$82.1 million), supposedly the couple's worth is reported to be at stake in the divorce.

Quan told Shanghai Daily on January 4, however, that she herself tried to ensure that donations were only spent on the tiger project and that she left the finances up to her estranged husband, American investment banker Stuart Bray.

Quan, who sued for divorce, did testify to a lavish lifestyle of expensive food and wine but said she did not believe she was using charitable funds.

"I did not regard it as fraud ... my husband told me it was one and the same ... the same pot," she said in court and also told Shanghai Daily in a telephone interview from her London home.

Bray has not testified and was not available for comment but he earlier told journalists in London that he would dispute his wife's account.

The Save China's Tigers website (english.savechinastigers.org) does not disclose funding.

After hearing evidence from Quan and a financial associate of Bray's about a luxurious lifestyle and tax shelters, Judge Paul Coleridge told the court the evidence suggested that the couple were defrauding the charity "on a grand and big scale." He was quoted by media reports as saying, "It was incredibly dishonest."

Quan, a Beijing native, is a graduate of the Wharton School of Business and a former fashion house executive with Gucci and Benetton.

She told Shanghai Daily that there was a "misunderstanding" about use of charitable funds to finance the couple's lifestyle. She said there was a complicated financial network, which she did not understand and with which she was not involved.

"The tiger project cost far more than the public donations and I was careful to make sure that any outside money would go to the tiger project," Li said. She said donations from the Chinese mainland were only received after August 2012 and amounted to only 82,852 yuan (US$13,691).

"Compared to the huge input to train tigers, donations from China are relatively small. The third party international donations are US$300,000, and tigers cost around US$150,000 a year," she said.

She said in court, "I will make sure that I do not use the public donation for my personal expenditures, but just what we put in."

Media reports quote Quan as saying in court: "We were using the money to fund our personal things ... We had expensive dinners. We had expensive wine."

Bray had "complete control of the finances of Save China's Tigers" during her marriage, she told Shanghai Daily.

The project was cofounded by Quan and Bray in 2000 and physically established in 2002 on 81,544 acres in South Africa in Laohu (Tiger) Valley Reserve.

With the cooperation of Chinese wildlife and forestry authorities, south China tigers were introduced to the African bush and their cubs have been born in the wild. The aim is to eventually return them to China where the tigers are almost extinct and to develop tiger reserves for eco tourism. None has been returned.

Rewilding is highly controversial, but Quan says there are results.

There are now 15 South China tigers in the African project. A cub was born in August, part of a third generation. A number can fend for themselves in the wild, Quan said.

Save the China Tigers is based in the UK, the United States and Hong Kong.

She said she was removed in July 2012 from the board of Save the China Tigers by her husband and has been denied all access and information. She has set up a new charity China Tiger Revival, which is independent of Bray, to continue rewilding tigers for China.

She filed for divorce in August 2012 after her removal.

"My life's mission is to bring Chinese tigers home, to show the world China's resolution in protecting wild animals and to promote my over 10 years experience in the field," Quan said.