“Meet the Hong Kong billionaire focusing on a brand new Components 1 crew,” reads an article from The Independent printed in Could. “Hong Kong insurance coverage billionaire Calvin Lo staying away from crypto investing,” says one other report on that very same billionaire, this time from CNBC. A fast web search of Lo’s title reveals quite a few different articles that additionally consult with him as a “billionaire,” however these media assertions are false, enterprise journal Forbes claimed in a bombshell article printed this week. As an alternative, they allege, Lo falsified his wealth in an effort to realize a place on its annual Billionaires Checklist, wherein the journal ranks the wealthiest folks on the planet.
It is a declare that Lo—by an legal professional—denies, saying that “all insinuations that our shopper has been dishonest, untruthful or in any other case unethical are hereby categorically denied by him.” However based on a “almost year-long investigation” that included conversations with “40 folks in six nations” and “a whole lot of pages of paperwork,” Lo is not a billionaire in any respect, and is as a substitute solely value “lower than $200 million.” And that is with the belongings of each of his dad and mom thrown into the combination.
It is a far cry from the person described in an April Reuters report because the probably bidder on a brand new F1 crew, and who mentioned that “The monetary half, consider it or not, to me is definitely not the most important downside,” of launching a brand new auto racing effort. However based on Forbes reporters Robert Olsen, John Kang, and Zinnia Lee, the numerous articles from respected shops that offered Lo as an investor within the Williams Components 1 racing crew, in addition to the aspiring proprietor of a brand new outfit, had been false. Different articles declare he owns the Mandarin Oriental Taipei, whereas others reported that he had graduated from Harvard Enterprise Faculty. Each assertions are additionally incorrect, Forbes stories.
”He’s hardly the primary particular person to deceive Forbes in regards to the dimension of his fortune,” Forbes writes, however “Lo stands out for the audacity of his claims and the lengths to which he was prepared to go.”
Lo is the CEO of R.E. Lee Worldwide, a six-decade-old life insurance coverage brokerage headquartered in Hong Kong. Lo’s mom, Regina Lee, labored on the brokerage in its early days, and bought the corporate in 2015. “It’s attainable she ultimately gave your entire enterprise to Lo,” Forbes speculates, and based on the choose that oversaw Lo’s 2014 divorce, “He was being groomed by his mom right into a high-flying funding dealer with a life-style which he clearly couldn’t afford together with his wage.”
It additionally seems, based mostly on Forbes’s reporting, that Lo was not flying as excessive as he claimed. For instance, when talking with The Impartial earlier this yr, Lo seems to have claimed that he owned “a set of supercars and a set of tip-top champagne, with a single batch costing $230m.” Nevertheless, based on Forbes, that champagne assortment valuation “appears absurdly excessive.” Based on Tim Triptree, Christie’s Worldwide Director of Wine & Spirits in London, “I don’t suppose over $100 million can be possible” for any assortment of bubbles. “I discover that unlikely.”
Equally unlikely seems to be the supercar possession assertion: Whereas Forbes concedes that it did certainly discover a picture of Lo subsequent to a Pagani Huayra Tempesta—one of the vital costly automobiles on the planet—that picture won’t be actual, the journal stories, because it “discovered the very same picture with out Lo, which was taken by Robin Adams for a Sotheby’s public sale in 2017. The photographer informed Forbes that the image had ‘clearly’ been altered and used with out permission.”
It is unclear why so many information shops reported false and incorrect details about Lo’s wealth in recent times, however Forbes credit a sequence of PR companies and 4 totally different Thai legislation corporations with roles in bolstering his billionaire creds. However after the journal let him know that he wouldn’t be included in its 2023 checklist, Lo appeared to change into disenchanted with the publication, and mentioned by a PR consultant that he prefers to be “excluded from the wealth rankings printed by Forbes.” Or, as he put it to The Impartial earlier this yr, “In my opinion, the wealthier you might be… you don’t exit and flaunt it. Effectively, some do, most don’t!”
