Li Pak-tam, also known as Li Botan, is a Chinese businessman and socialite. He was one of the three primary backers of the American electric car startup

Canoo Canoo Inc. was an American automotive company based in Torrance, California, that developed and manufactured electric vehicles. Canoo's research and development team was based in Michigan, in the Metro Detroit, Detroit region (Auburn Hills, Mi ...

which was spun off from Faraday Future.

Family and personal life

He is married to Jia Qiang. This makes him the son-in-law of Jia Qinglin a top

Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...

official who was the fourth most powerful man in China before his retirement in 2013. Li has two daughters, a daughter named Zidan (Jasmine) Li, and another graduated from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...

in 2023. Both Li Pak-tam and Jasmine Li hold

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

residence cards.

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

. In 2016 Li 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 The British Virgin Islands (BVI), officially the Virgin Islands, are a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Caribbean, to the east of Puerto Rico and the United States Virgin Islands, US Virgin Islands and north-west ...

, 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. In 2015

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

reported that Li was using an employee named Pan Yongbin as a proxy to hold 32 million shares of

Wanda Group Wanda Group (), or the Dalian Wanda Group (), is a Chinese multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in Dalian, Liaoning, and headquartered in Beijing. The conglomerate's core businesses are a priva ...

, then valued at $200 million. In October 2019, Li's stake in Canoo was revealed by a lawsuit filed by Christina Krause, the wife of co-founder Stefan Krause. Along with Li, Krause and German industrialist David Stern were Canoo's primary backers. The company started in 2017 when 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.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Li, Pak-tam Chinese businesspeople Chinese venture capitalists Year of birth missing (living people) Living people