Former Carrian boss may be allowed to stay in SAR

Disgraced former Carrian boss George Tan Soon-gin has claimed right of abode and produced a permanent identity card, immigration sources said yesterday.

Mr Tan, 63, was released from three years custody at the weekend amid widespread doubt about his exact birthplace and nationality status.

An Immigration Department source said: 'It does seem that he wants to rest quietly in Hong Kong and has the documentation to allow him to do so. Deportation is highly unlikely.' Mr Tan's fraud sentence ended a 13-year legal battle after Carrian's $1.8 billion failure, Hong Kong's biggest corporate collapse.

He remained in secure seclusion in a private room at the Adventist Hospital last night. Mr Tan is being treated for severe heart trouble which saw him spend most of his sentence under guard in Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

The Paraguayan passport holder was reportedly stripped of his Singaporean citizenship in 1983, the same year Crown prosecutors claimed in a bail hearing that he had been living illegally in Hong Kong for 10 years and would eventually face removal.

'He will be removed from Hong Kong,' said then senior assistant Crown prosecutor Warwick Reid. 'His roots here will be terminated.' The possibility of Mr Tan being allowed to live in Hong Kong marks an unexpected windfall for the Independent Commission Against Corruption as it waits to close the saga.