Scrutiny falls on entrepreneur with mixed track record serving as close aide of Dubai’s Sheikh Ali Al Maktoum in Hong Kong
- Sheikh Ali Rashed Ali Saeed Al Maktoum’s news he was opening a US$500 million family office in Hong Kong, only to postpone the launch ceremony, raised eyebrows
- Prince’s background has come under the spotlight, and one of his close aides has a mixed track record as an entrepreneur
A close aide of a Dubai prince who suddenly postponed the opening ceremony of his Hong Kong family office has a history of unsuccessful blockchain ventures and was involved in a solar plant deal in the United States that collapsed due to a lack of funding, public records show.
Sheikh Ali Rashed Ali Saeed Al Maktoum, reportedly the nephew of Dubai’s ruler and prime minister, grabbed headlines earlier this month when he pledged to open a US$500 million family office in Hong Kong and made appearances at high-profile events in the city over the past week.
But he unexpectedly pushed back the opening ceremony of the office by two months and questions have swirled about his business track record and connections to the ruling family.
Scrutiny has now fallen on his close aides, including the office’s director of international strategic relations William Tien, also known as Tien Chwan Hoa.
Tien was involved in the blockchain-based digital wallet TiENPAY that folded and was a director of a company tied to a solar plant deal in Arizona that imploded when a newspaper exposé revealed the backers could not provide the financing.
In explaining Thursday’s postponement of the launch ceremony of Maktoum’s family office at the eleventh hour, his private office pointed to “some urgent matters in Dubai that needed his attention”.
“It has been confirmed that the operation of the sheikh’s family office in Hong Kong will proceed as planned,” the office said on Friday evening. “It is merely the inauguration ceremony that has been planned will now be postponed until Sheikh Ali Al Maktoum comes [to] town again at the end of May.”
Maktoum also expressed his “sincere gratitude” to the Hong Kong government, including the Financial Services and Treasury Bureau and InvestHK, for their help in establishing his office in the city, and apologised for any inconvenience caused.
The statement did not elaborate on the urgent matters that led to the abrupt delay and did not address the prince’s business experience or family ties.
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The private office’s website was created less than a year ago, with the domain name registered on May 29, 2023, through Domains by Proxy, according to whois records.
Communications with the press have been managed by Eleanor Jane Mak, vice-chairman and CEO of the prince’s family office. She remains a director of China New Energy Skyrail International and nine other locally registered companies.
Representatives of the prince’s office, according to the Friday evening statement, have been in contact with China New Energy Skyrail, which has previously advanced a monorail project for the Kai Tak development area in Hong Kong. The office said its staff had visited Beijing, Nanjing, Fuzhou, Guangzhou and Chengdu in mainland China to explore opportunities.
William Tien was the representative who signed a cooperation deal with the Hang Seng University of Hong Kong on behalf of the office on Tuesday.
The entrepreneur, who identifies himself as the president and CEO of the US-based Axis Technologies Group on his LinkedIn account, is no stranger to setting up businesses in Hong Kong, holding directorships in at least seven locally registered companies under the name “Tien Chwan Hoa”.
Tien was a director of TiENPAY, which was dissolved last year. TiENPAY labelled itself a software developer involved in mobile wallet and blockchain projects, as well as the crypto-to-crypto digital exchange T8EX. The TiENPAY website is no longer accessible.
TiENPAY was previously known as Zentric (HK) and had entered into an engineering, procurement and construction agreement with Matinee Energy to build solar power plants in Benson, Arizona, in January of 2012, according to a filing with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission made that year.
Dubai prince abruptly postpones opening US$500 million Hong Kong family office
The solar project later ran into trouble and Zentric’s lack of a track record in the field was exposed in a bombshell report by the Phoenix New Times, which described the two US-based companies headed by Tien at the time – including Alpha Lujo – as “broke”.
Zentric reportedly pulled out of the project “just before press time” after the Arizona newspaper made email inquiries, with Tien claiming in a letter that his firm was “unable to arrange for sufficient financing” to meet the project’s deadlines.
Contractors of the project have since launched legal battles against executives of Matinee Energy demanding compensation, which Zentric and Tien were not involved in.
One of Tien’s newest ventures is Asian Carbon Holdings, which was incorporated last October, two months before the prince’s previous visit to Hong Kong. Tien had touted his experience in green sectors when being interviewed as chairman of Asian Carbon Holdings last December.
“I started working on carbon capture and storage projects in 2009, and it has become more and more common in the past few years. They call it carbon neutralisation in China. So we have rich experience in this industry,” he told a broadcaster at an event that the prince attended as well.
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In the interview he suggested a project to facilitate carbon credit trading through blockchain tokenisation of real-world assets. The idea seemed to align with a plan of Maktoum’s office to focus on “sustainable business ties between the UAE and Asia”.
Tien is a Singaporean passport holder with a correspondence address at a residential block at a housing estate in the city state, according to a new filing made this month for a Hong Kong company called Space Node Lab.
He listed a pair of US and Singapore mobile numbers on his business card for his role in the prince’s family office, though the former could not be reached and the latter was not in use. The Post has reached out to Tien by email.
The Dubai prince’s ambitious investment plan attracted considerable attention and interest from mainland Chinese enterprises, but some raised concerns after finding scarce public information about him.
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Questions about Maktoum’s relationship with the prime minister were also raised by academics who study the history of the royal families of the Gulf states.
Two sources with knowledge of the royals said Maktoum was from a “distant branch” of the ruling family. The UAE consulate earlier confirmed that Maktoum was “from the ruling family” and “a sheikh” – an honorific title designating a royal family member.
In the first statement issued on Friday, Maktoum’s office also painted the 28-year-old as a “visionary leader and patriot of cultural arts dedicated to fostering positive changes that extend beyond the borders of Dubai” and highlighted his recent appointment as an honorary professor in sustainability leadership at Hang Seng University.
“Sheikh Ali Al Maktoum believes that the opening of his family office in Hong Kong is just the start of his global public service,” it added.
Hang Seng University told the Post on Friday that the delayed opening of the office would have no impact on the operation of the Asia-Pacific Asean Green Deal Centre.
The Hong Kong government distanced itself from the matter on Thursday, saying it would not comment on the business activities of individuals.
The prince had spoken at a key family office summit in Hong Kong a day earlier, co-organised by the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau and InvestHK.
