Li Pak-tam

Li Pak-tam, also known as Li Botan, is a Chinese businessman and socialite. He is one of the three primary backers of the American electric car startup Canoo[1] which was spun off from Faraday Future.[2]

Li Pak-tam
NationalityChinese
Other namesLi Botan
OccupationBusinessman
Known forVenture Capitalism
Spouse(s)Jia Qiang
Children1

Family and personal life

He is married to Jia Qiang.[3] This makes him the son-in-law of Jia Qinglin[4] a top Chinese Communist Party official who was the fourth most powerful man in China before his retirement in 2013. Li has a daughter named Jasmine Li (Li Zidan).[5][6] Both Li Pak-tam and Jasmine Li hold Hong Kong residence cards.[7]

Career

Li Pak-tam is the founder and former chairman of the board of Beijing Zhaode Investment Co and has also started a number of companies in Hong Kong.[5]

In 2016 Pak-tam was implicated in the Panama Papers leak. The documents revealed that he was the owner of a firm named Fung Shing Development Ltd which had been set up in the British Virgin Islands, a tax haven. His daughter Jasmine was also named in the Panama Papers, her shell company Harvest Sun Trading Ltd shared a director, Polly Pau Tsz-yim, with her father's BVI shell company.[5] In 2015 The New York Times reported that Li was using an employee named Pan Yongbin as a proxy to hold 32 million shares of Wanda Group then valued at $200 million.[8]

In October 2019 Pak-tam's stake in Canoo was revealed by a lawsuit filed by Christina Krause, the wife of co-founder Stefan Krause. Along with Krause and German industrialist David Stern are Canoo's primary backers.[1] The company started in 2017 when Stefan Krause pitched Li and Stern on the idea in Hong Kong. After the meeting the three reportedly entered into a gentleman's agreement to start the company. Li and Stern provided the startup capital.[9]

References
  1. Korosec, Kirsten. "EV subscription startup Canoo, co-founder sued for alleged harassment". techcrunch.com. Tech Crunch. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
  2. Neidermeyer, Edward. "EV Startup Canoo Debuts First Subscription-Only Vehicle". www.thedrive.com. The Drive. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
  3. Cheng, Kris. "Relatives of ex-Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping are HK residents – Panama Papers report". www.hongkongfp.com. Hong Kong Free Press. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
  4. Forsythe, Michael. "Wang Jianlin, a Billionaire at the Intersection of Business and Power in China". www.nytimes.com. New York Times. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  5. Catherine Wong, Nectar Gan and. "Son-in-law of ex-senior Chinese leader Jia Qinglin named in latest batch of Panama Papers". www.scmp.com. South China Morning Post. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
  6. "The question in China: what Panama Papers?". www.fcchk.org. The Foreign Correspondents’ Club, Hong Kong. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  7. "Cadres' relatives have permanent Hong Kong IDs: Panama Papers". www.ejinsight.com. ejinsight. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  8. Bing, Fang. "Author of NY Times China Investigation Explains Process". www.voanews.com. Voice of America. Retrieved 23 November 2019.
  9. O'Kane, Sean. "EV startup Canoo's mysterious backers named in new harassment lawsuit". www.theverge.com. The Verge. Retrieved 9 October 2019.
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