Hong Kong businessman who tried to dupe Forbes

Hong Kong insurance broker Calvin Lo tried to dupe Forbes into including him on its billionaires list, report Robert Olsen, John Kang and Zinnia Lee of Forbes.

Olsen, Kang and Lee report, “Lo was presented to us as the CEO and owner of R.E. Lee International, ‘the world’s largest life insurance broker’ with around $1 billion in premiums, and the founder of R.E. Lee Capital, an asset manager with between $8 billion and $10 billion in assets, depending upon the press release. He was described as a Harvard-educated investor who paid $1.2 billion in 2018, through his personal investment vehicle, R.E. Lee Octagon, to buy the five-star Mandarin Oriental hotel in Taipei, Taiwan; a philanthropist who set up a $250 million charitable foundation; and the owner of a half-dozen homes around the world. He was also ‘said to be Asia’s largest investor and collector of champagnes and one of the first owners of a Gulfstream G650 private jet in Asia.’ Oh, yeah—he was also an investor in the legendary Williams Formula 1 racing team.

“Most of these claims could not be confirmed. Others are flat-out lies. He doesn’t have a stake in the F1 racing team. He doesn’t own the Mandarin Oriental, Taipei. His homes, based on addresses he supplied, belong either to his parents or to other people. Harvard Business School has no record of anyone named Calvin Lo graduating. Neither his charitable foundation nor R.E. Lee Octagon appears to exist, and R.E. Lee Capital clarified that, while Lo is in fact the son of a nonexecutive equity investor in the firm, his mother Regina Lee’s involvement in the business (she is its chairwoman) ‘should not be misconstrued as an association between Mr. Lo and our company.’ R.E. Lee Capi­tal also confirmed it does not have anywhere close to the supposed $8 billion to $10 billion in assets under management.”

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