From the Financial Times: “The youthful Chinese man making his way up the aircraft aisle after take-off from Shanghai wanted to talk business with Lee Kuan Yew, the father of modern Singapore.
The 81-year-old former prime minister, a charismatic figure who inspires both respect and fear across Asia, did not expect the stranger’s approach. ‘I was taken aback when he gave me his card,’ he recalls.
The request was for Mr Lee’s support in the purchase of a stake in Singapore Petroleum Company, a state-controlled oil refiner. The business card read: Chen Jiulin, managing director and chief executive officer, China Aviation Oil (Singapore) Corporation Ltd.
A few months after that mid-air encounter, Mr Chen and his company, a jet fuel importer controlled by the Chinese state but listed in Singapore, were high-flying no longer. On December 8, the CAO chief was arrested by police in the city-state founded by Mr Lee, after his company collapsed with $550m in derivatives losses.”
