Henn Tan

Last updated

Henn Tan, is the Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and Executive Director of Trek 2000 International, the company that invented the ThumbDrive, [1] the first USB flash drive. This invention revolutionised the portable media storage industry and led to the phase out the floppy disk. Tan is a holder and inventor of numerous patents worldwide. He has also served as a board director at Ren Ci Hospital Limited since November 2010.

Contents

Early life

Tan, the third son in a family of six boys, was born in a kampung in Geylang Lorong 17, Singapore to a pest-control worker father and housewife mother. Tan's family was poor and his parents spent most of their time earning a living. Tan went on to study at the Aljunied Technical High School, the first person in his family to enter secondary school. However, he came under the influence of bad company, and began skipping school. He completed his "O" Levels, but his life only began to take a turn when he entered the National Service, where he straightened out his life. [2]

Career

After completing his National Service, Tan joined a German multinational firm as a machinist. Tan then joined Sanshin Electronics, an agent for NEC Semiconductors, as a marketing executive from 1980 to 1983. He later joined Shin-Nichi, a member of the SANYO group of companies, in 1984. In Shin-Nichi, Tan worked his way up to become the director of operations where he oversaw the company's operations in Southeast Asia. In 1995, Tan resigned from the company. [3]

Trek 2000

In 1995, Tan bought over Trek, a small family-owned electronic parts trading business in Geylang, for S$1 million. He restructured the company and changed its business focus to providing technology-driven engineering solutions to businesses. In 1998, the company was appointed the design house for Toshiba. [4]

With his engineers, Tan began to explore ways to create a data storage device that utilises the USB interface. Their solution was the ThumbDrive, a plug-and-play memory drive that required no cable or adapters, and that could store more data than a floppy disk. In 2000, Tan presented the ThumbDrive at the CeBIT international technology fair in Germany. In the same year, Tan took his company public on the Singapore Exchange, hence the name Trek 2000. [5] As of December 2011, the company’s annual revenue amounted to US $86.1million. [6]

Tan quit his chairman position after the Singapore Exchange in 2018 objected to him continuing as the CEO, but he remained as chairman emeritus until 2020. Presently, his son Wayne is deputy chairman of Trek. [7]

Violations of Securities and Futures Act

In 2019, Tan was charged with 3 others over cheating and falsification of accounts. [8] A year later, Tan was fined S$80,000 by Singapore police’s Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) for failing to disclose S$14m in company transactions. [9] On 15 August 2022, Tan pleaded guilty to five charges of engaging in conspiracies to falsify accounts, forge documents to cover his tracks and cheat external auditors. He pleaded guilty to falsifying accounts [10] and was sentenced to jail for 1 year 4 months in October 2022. [11]

Tan had from as far back as between 2006 and 2011 conspired with then chief financial officer Gurcharan Singh to make false entries in Trek 2000's financial statements pertaining to some licensing income. Tan and his co-accused's crimes began to unravel when Trek 2000's auditors Ernst & Young (EY) discovered that Tan and his co-accused had cooked the books for financial year 2015. Tan then realised that the company's performance for financial year 2015 would be dismal and conspired with a few senior officers to inflate revenue and pre-tax operating profit by plucking a US$3.2 million sale from thin air - accompanied with false supporting documents. When confronted about the transaction, Tan and his co-accused tried to deceive EY that the sale was genuine and the financial statements had been drawn up properly. EY did not believe Tan and conducted further audit procedures, including forensic imaging of the laptops and computers of Singh, then president of regional sales Foo Kok Wah and former executive director Poo Teng Pin. This uncovered other fictitious deals in 2013, and EY reported the matter to the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, stating that it believed Trek 2000's management had made false and misleading statements regarding the US$3.2 million sale. EY later issued a disclaimer of opinion for Trek 2000's financial statements for financial year 2015. [12]

Awards and recognition

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tharman Shanmugaratnam</span> President of Singapore since 2023

Tharman Shanmugaratnam, also known mononymously as Tharman, is a Singaporean politician and economist who has been serving as the ninth president of Singapore since 2023.

Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd, doing business as ST Engineering, is a Singaporean multinational technology and engineering group in the aerospace, smart city as well as defence and public security sectors. Headquartered in Singapore, the group reported a revenue of S$7.7 billion in FY2021, ranks among the largest companies listed on the Singapore Exchange, and is one of Asia's largest defence and engineering groups. It is a component stock of FTSE Straits Times Index, MSCI Singapore, iEdge SG ESG Transparency Index and iEdge SG ESG Leaders Index. ST Engineering has about 23,000 employees worldwide with two-thirds of its employees in the engineering and technology roles.

Tay Yong Kwang is a Singaporean judge of the Supreme Court. He was first appointed Judicial Commissioner in 1997, appointed Judge in 2003, and appointed Judge of Appeal in 2016. He was noted for being the presiding judge in several notable cases that shocked the nation and made headlines in Singapore. He was most recently re-appointed for a further two year term on the Court of Appeal from 3 September 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lai Kew Chai</span>

Lai Kew Chai was a Singaporean judge and the longest-serving member of the Supreme Court Bench, having served for almost 25 years as a Judge.

Glenn Jeyasingam Knight is a Singaporean lawyer. He was the first Director of the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) when it was founded in 1984. He lost his post in 1991 after being convicted of corruption in a much-publicised trial. In 1998, he was again tried and convicted for misappropriating money while in office.

Cavinder Bull is a Singaporean lawyer and the chief executive officer of the law firm Drew & Napier. He has served in this position since August 2017, upon the departure of Davinder Singh to start his own practice. He has an active practice in complex litigation and international arbitration and is considered one of the top 15 litigators in South-East Asia.

Sunshine Empire was a Multi Level Marketing (MLM) company, set up in 2006, based in Singapore. It is now defunct, with assets frozen by the Singapore Court. The company is listed by the Singapore Government's Monetary Authority in its Investor's Alert List, for possibly running investment schemes without authority. After investigation by the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) of the Singapore Police and a court trial, Sunshine Empire's Directors were charged with and found guilty of fraud, criminal breach of trust and falsifying accounts.

Crime rates in Singapore are some of the lowest in the world, with petty crimes such as pickpocketing and street theft rarely occurring, and violent crime being extremely rare. Penalties for drug offences such as trafficking in Singapore are severe, and include the death penalty.

James Phang Wah is a convicted felon for perpetuating fraud and criminal breach of trust. Before his arrest and conviction, he was the founder, director and international president of the now-defunct Empire Group Alliance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trek 2000 International</span> Singaporean technology company

Trek 2000 International Limited is a Singaporean technology company that is listed on the Singapore Exchange (SGX:TREK). The company claims to be the inventor of the ThumbDrive, a USB data storage device. The company owns a library of more than 600 patents, with 360 granted patents. It has also developed numerous other products in the same consumer electronics market segments including the Ai-Ball and offers products such as SSDs and Flash Drives. The ThumbDrive trademark is registered by Trek 2000 International in international markets, although the original inventors of the USB flash drive and the related patents are the subjects of multiple disputes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tan Boon Teik</span>

Tan Boon Teik was a Singaporean judge who served as the second attorney-general of Singapore between 1969 and 1992. At the age of 39, Tan was the youngest person to be appointed as attorney-general, and was the longest-serving attorney-general after the Independence of Singapore, after 25 years in office.

FluCard is a wireless SD card used primarily with digital cameras. The Flucard is manufactured by Trek 2000 International, which is the Singaporean company that is one of the purported inventors of the ThumbDrive technology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">City Harvest Church criminal breach of trust case</span> Corruption case in Singapore

The City Harvest Church criminal breach of trust (CBT) case was one of the longest criminal trials in Singapore's history. Church founder Kong Hee and five other church leaders were found guilty by a District Court on 21 October 2015 of CBT by agent after misappropriating some S$50 million of church funds. Approximately S$24 million was invested in sham bonds to bankroll the pop-music career of his wife, Ho Yeow Sun, while a further S$26 million was used to later cover their tracks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tan Chor Jin</span> Executed Singaporean gang member for murder

Tan Chor Jin, also known by his alias Tony Kia, was a Singaporean gang leader known for fatally shooting 41-year-old Lim Hock Soon, his former friend and nightclub owner, using a semi-automatic Beretta 0.22 calibre pistol on 15 February 2006. Tan, who had underworld affiliations and was a member of Ang Soon Tong since his early years, had also robbed the Lim family of their valuables before he escaped Singapore to Malaysia, where he was arrested ten days later. The media gave him the name "One-eyed Dragon" given that he was blind in the right eye.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chia Teck Leng</span> High-profile white-collar criminal in Singapore

Chia Teck Leng is a convicted white-collar criminal from Singapore, who was known for his four-year commercial fraud which involved the swindling of $117 million from four foreign major banks to feed his gambling addiction during his time as a financial manager at Asia Pacific Breweries (APB). Chia's crime was known to be Singapore's worst commercial crime committed in the city-state, surpassing that of Teo Cheng Kiat, who embezzled $35 million from Singapore Airlines for 13 years while he was employed there before his capture and sentencing of 24 years' imprisonment in 2000.

Teo Cheng Kiat is a Singaporean who was known for embezzling $35 million from Singapore Airlines (SIA) while he was still employed there, and the embezzlement lasted for 13 years between 1987 and 2000 before the detection of his criminal deeds and subsequent capture. Teo was charged with 26 charges of criminal breach of trust and corruption but was found guilty of ten charges; he was sentenced to a total of 24 years' imprisonment in the same year he was arrested.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tan Ping Koon</span> Singaporean kidnapper and former businessman

Tan Ping Koon is a Singaporean man who, together with Chua Ser Lien, was charged for the kidnapping of a seven-year-old girl for ransom during Christmas Day of 2003. Tan, who was the owner and manager of a transportation company, had several financial troubles and thus it led to both Tan and Chua to decide to kidnap a child of a wealthy businessman for ransom. The men also demanded a ransom of S$1 million before settling on the final sum of S$70,000 through negotiations. Two days after the crime, both Chua and Tan were arrested and brought to trial for kidnapping for ransom, and after they pleaded guilty to committing the crime, both men were each sentenced to life at Changi Prison and three strokes of the cane by High Court judge Tay Yong Kwang on 9 September 2004.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Spencer Tuppani</span> 2017 murder of a man in Singapore

On 10 July 2017, 69-year-old Tan Nam Seng stabbed his son-in-law, 38-year-old Spencer Sanjay Tuppani Shamlal Tuppani, in broad daylight at Telok Ayer Street, Singapore. Tuppani escaped and Tan gave chase, however Tuppani collapsed along Boon Tat Street and subsequently died from his injuries.

References

  1. ↑ 'Trekking' Onwards with IP Archived 2011-12-21 at the Wayback Machine
  2. ↑ Au Yong, J. (2006, January 8). The drive to succeed. The Straits Times. Retrieved on February 25, 2011, from NewspaperSG
  3. ↑ Tan, M. P. (2006, March 8). From caning and joking to trekking. The New Paper. Retrieved January 20, 2009, from Factiva database
  4. ↑ Trek 2000 (2002-2008). Trek. Retrieved January 20, 2009, from http://www.trek2000.com.sg
  5. ↑ Long, S. (2001, September 21). Firm hand puts him right on Trek. The Straits Times. Retrieved January 20, 2009, from Factiva database
  6. ↑ Trek 2000 International Ltd. (2011, December). Trek 2000 International Ltd. Prospectus. Retrieved June 08, 2012, from Singapore Exchange Ltd. Web site: http://www.sgx.com
  7. ↑ Gek, Tay Peck (15 August 2022). "Trek 2000 founder and thumb drive inventor Henn Tan pleads guilty to falsifying accounts, cheating | the Straits Times". The Straits Times.
  8. ↑ "Trek 2000 founder and thumb drive inventor Henn Tan, 3 others charged with cheating, falsifying accounts". The Straits Times. 25 September 2019. Retrieved 23 April 2021.
  9. ↑ "Thumbdrive inventor fined S$80,000 for failing to disclose S$14m in company transactions". TODAY. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  10. ↑ Gek, Tay Peck (15 August 2022). "Trek 2000 founder and thumb drive inventor Henn Tan pleads guilty to falsifying accounts, cheating | the Straits Times". The Straits Times.
  11. ↑ Wong, Shiying (2022-10-11). "Thumb drive inventor and Trek 2000 founder Henn Tan jailed for accounting fraud". The Straits Times. ISSN   0585-3923 . Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  12. ↑ Gek, Tay Peck (15 August 2022). "Trek 2000 founder and thumb drive inventor Henn Tan pleads guilty to falsifying accounts, cheating | the Straits Times". The Straits Times.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.