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George Tan

Hong Kong businessman

George Tan Soon-gin was a Hong Kong financial criminal and businessman and who was known for his role and involvement in the Carrian Group and the scandal that led to its collapse.2

From Wikipedia’s article on George Tan (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Born 1935, died 2021.1

Companies

Early life and education

Tan was a descendant of Hokkien people.

There is conflicting information on Tan's year and place of birth. A report by Wall Street Journal claims Tan was born in Malaysia, and Tan himself claimed he was born in Sarawak in 1938. Meanwhile, Tan's Singapore passport, which was revoked by the Singaporean government, claims he was born in Fujian on 10 December 1933.

Tan trained in the United Kingdom as an engineer, obtaining a civil engineering degree at University of London.

From Wikipedia’s article on George Tan (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Career

Occupation: businessperson.4

Tan worked in Singapore and Malaysia during the 1960s, and had small civil engineering businesses in Singapore prior to him being declared bankrupt there.

Tan moved to Hong Kong in 1972, and first started working as a civil engineering manager at a property firm called EDA Investments, a big property firm that was owned by the Chung family.

Eventually, Tan began buying properties at a cheap price, during a time when the city was experiencing a property price slump. In 1975, Tan teamed up with a member of the Chung family to start up a company, and went on to buy a piece of land that is currently the site of Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital for HK$2.5 million, and sold it to the Government of Hong Kong a year later for HK$6.2 million.

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Carrian Group

In 1979, Tan bought a controlling stake in a company named Mai Hon Holdings, and renamed the company Carrian. While Carrian was involved in a number of businesses, its core business was in real estate.

Carrian became known in Hong Kong after a subsidiary of the company bought Gammon House (now known as Bank of America Tower) in 1980 for nearly HK$1 billion, and then sold it for HK$1.7 billion. Its rapid expansion led to rumors over the source of its capital, with various rumors speculating the capital came from Imelda Marcos, Gosbank, and a lumber corporation in Borneo.

Carrian would later go on a buying spree of various businesses in the 1980s, including Cargo ships and shares of companies in a variety of industries, leading some commentators to say the company is akin to a "greedy housewife entering a supermarket and placing items she needs into her basket without regards to price". The company's business operations eventually encompassed shipping, travel, and taxi transportation.

Carrian Group's fortunes began to sour in 1982 when Chung Cheng Man, a major partner of Carrian and member of the Chung family (whose company Tan worked for after his arrival to Hong Kong), parted ways with Carrian due to his discovery of major debt accumulation from Carrian's business ventures. In return, Tan gave Chung a generous severance deal because Chung had knowledge of improprieties allegedly committed by Tan. This, along with a general economic downturn, led to a strained financial state for Carrian. The company eventually collapsed in a financial scandal.

From Wikipedia’s article on George Tan (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Sources

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