There, his father started a small garment business, but died when James was 13. There are also plenty of questions about Ting's colorful career that remain to be answered.īorn Ting Wei in Shanghai in 1951, Ting moved with his family to Hong Kong in 1958. His Hong Kong sometime-lawyer, Andrew Ng, answers with a terse "no comment" on the affair, even when asked if he still represents Ting. In this atmosphere, how the liquidation of Ting's companies and any possible prosecution are handled will prove "a barometer for corporate governance in Hong Kong," says a spokesman for a group of Ting's Hong Kong creditors.Īs for Ting, he has yet to be charged with anything.
With the global markets in such a fragile state, Hong Kong authorities have to figure out the best way to maintain the city's image as a transparent, well-policed financial center. And it couldn't come at a worse possible time for Hong Kong.
Ernst & Young is accused of fraud, conspiracy to defraud, negligent misrepresentation, and accounting malpractice. Plaintiffs in the suit also charge Ernst & Young and Bankers Trust with breach of fiduciary duty for failing to challenge suspicious dealings between Semi-Tech and affiliated companies between 19. The suit charges that Semi-Tech directors, including Ting, "conspired to loot the assets of the debtors."
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Plaintiffs say that a series of transactions violated the terms under which the company issued $300 million in bonds in 1993. The suit demands $578 million from Ting, from the directors of Semi-Tech, from Ting's investment bank, Bankers Trust, and from his auditor, Ernst & Young. Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in New York, a civil lawsuit launched in November, 2001, by Semi-Tech bondholders is gathering steam. Also, some say regulators are worried about pursuing a case that may involve prominent people in Hong Kong-an assertion regulators vigorously deny. The police, though, are moving cautiously because of the complicated nature of the transactions. The city's Commercial Crimes Bureau, a department of the Hong Kong police, is investigating Ting for possible fraud and has set up a separate team to carry the probe forward. The authors of the report won't comment, but the report itself says plenty: "The liquidators have substantial concerns in relation to the governance of Akai." The liquidators point to half a dozen suspicious transactions involving $315 million in cash and assets that they feel merit further investigation. "And he was remarkably successful at rebuilding companies that were not in great shape when he acquired them."įirst and foremost, a report prepared for Hong Kong's Official Receiver's Office, which is charged with overseeing the liquidation of Akai Holdings, is raising questions about a series of deals. in Hong Kong to work with Ting as chief executive of Singer. "He was hardworking," says Stephen Goodman, who left Bankers Trust Corp. The slight, bespectacled executive had plenty of admirers. At its peak five years ago, Ting's empire was Roman in scope, employing 100,000 workers in more than 120 countries and racking up almost $5 billion in sales.īy the mid-1990s, Ting's group boasted listings in stock markets around the world, including not just New York, Tokyo, Frankfurt, and Hong Kong but also Bombay and Dhaka.
As his success grew, so did his hubris: He rode to one marketing meeting in Rome in a Ben Hur-style chariot. He got substantial play in the press, including BusinessWeek. and Sansui Electric Co., the Japanese consumer-electronics maker. Starting his career as a small-time electronics manufacturer in Canada in the 1980s, Ting built up a business under his holding company, Semi-Tech Group, which specialized in the rescue of well-known but tarnished brand names such as Singer Sewing Machine Co. Ting, like other ambitious young men who based their businesses in the former British colony, was a citizen of the world, an entrepreneur who constructed a universe of interrelated companies and finances from Toronto to Tokyo to New York.įew, however, were as bold as Ting. James Henry Ting-not long ago, that was a name to reckon with in the fast-paced business world of Hong Kong.
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