48 lines
3.5 KiB
Markdown
48 lines
3.5 KiB
Markdown
---
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category: "Private Organization"
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tags:
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- Organization
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- Lippo
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- Stephens
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- HongKong
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- Banking
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alias:
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- Stephens Finance
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summary: "Hong Kong finance company established in 1978 by the Riady family's Lippo Group and the Stephens brothers of Arkansas, where John Huang worked before joining Worthen Bank."
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start: 1978
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location: "Hong Kong"
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relations:
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- type: founded
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with: "[[Mochtar Riady]]"
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reverse: true
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start: 1978
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fn: 1
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- type: founded
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with: "[[Jackson Stephens]]"
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reverse: true
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start: 1978
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fn: 1
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- type: employed_by
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with: "[[John Huang]]"
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reverse: true
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role: "executive vice president"
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fn: 1
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- type: employed_by
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with: "[[James Riady]]"
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reverse: true
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fn: 1
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created: 2026-09-23
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updated: 2026-09-23
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---
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Stephens Finance Ltd. was a [[Hong Kong]] finance company established in 1978 by [[Mochtar Riady]] of the [[Lippo Group]] and the Arkansas financiers Jackson and [[Witt Stephens]]. According to a 1998 report of the [[United States House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight|House Government Reform and Oversight Committee]], Mochtar Riady had first met the Stephens brothers in 1976, when he was "looking into buying Bert Lance's share of the [[National Bank of Georgia]]"; that deal fell through, and the friendship produced Stephens Finance two years later and "several other joint projects before Lippo and Stephens acquired a substantial stake in Worthen Bank of Arkansas in 1983."[^1]
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[[John Huang]] was executive vice president at Stephens Finance under [[James Riady]] before moving to [[Little Rock, Arkansas|Little Rock]] as vice president for the Far East at the [[Worthen Bank]], and was later appointed Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Economic Policy in the International Trade Administration of the [[United States Department of Commerce|Commerce Department]].[^1] The committee's account of these ventures rested chiefly on depositions of James Riady in *Stephens Group, Inc. v. [[United States]]* (1993), of the Little Rock lawyer [[C. Joseph Giroir]] (1997), and of Arthur Vernon Weaver (1997). The Riadys later traded their interest in Worthen for the Stephens family's interest in the [[Hong Kong Chinese Bank]], and traded their interests in other joint ventures.[^1]
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The National Bank of Georgia that Riady had considered buying from [[Bert Lance]] was sold instead, at a closing in January 1978, to [[Ghaith R. Pharaon]]; the [[Federal Reserve Board|Federal Reserve]] concluded in 1991, according to the [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]], that Pharaon had borrowed at least part of the purchase money, "with [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]] as his partner in the transaction from the beginning."[^2][^3]
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Government Reform and Oversight. *Investigation of Political Fundraising Improprieties and Possible Violations of Law: Interim Report.* House Report 105-829, 105th Congress, 2nd Session, 1998, vol. 2. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-105hrpt829/html/CRPT-105hrpt829-vol2.htm
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[^2]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 6, "BCCI in the United States: Initial Entry." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/06early.htm
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[^3]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 16, "BCCI and Georgia Politicians." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/16ga.htm
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