Disgraced property tycoon George Tan Soon-gin was declared bankrupt in the Court of First Instance yesterday after he failed to pay a debt of more than HK$60 million to his long-time foe, Rogerio Lam Sou-fung.
The debt arose from a legal fight in which Tan (pictured) was found to have sold precious Chinese porcelain borrowed from Lam in 1982.
Tan - former head of the failed Carrian Group property empire who was jailed in the 1990s - was ordered by the Court of First Instance last May to pay Lam the price fetched by three of the antiques at a 2005 auction: a Guyuexuan vase sold for HK$103 million, a stem cup for HK$2.8 million and a double-gourd vessel for HK$5 million.
A dish and a pair of quail dishes were ordered to be returned to Lam, son of the late Hang Seng Bank founder Lam Bing-yim.
All five antiques dated from the Song and Qing dynasties.
The Court of Appeal later ordered Tan to pay another HK$11.8 million to Lam for damage that had diminished the value of the stem cup and double gourd.
Lam received the money for the Guyuexuan vase directly from Sotheby's, which had not yet passed on payment to Tan. But that was all he received.