By Josh Robertson , ABC Hong Kong's powerful Cheng family have wanted a piece of the Australian casino industry for nearly 40 years. Now, through their family-controlled conglomerate Chow Tai Fook Enterprises, they hold a billion-dollar-plus stake in the Star Brisbane, Australia's most expensive casino venture. It was this quest for an Australian casino that thrust the Chengs into an unwitting role in something more significant: the rise of Donald Trump.
An unlikely partnership between the self-promoting New York tycoon and the publicity-shy Hong Kong billionaires was forged decades ago in bids to build casinos in north Queensland and New Zealand. And this led to the Chengs saving Trump from financial ruin, resurrecting a career that eventually took him to the White House. The alliance ended in a flaming heap amid claims of betrayal, lawsuits and a tax fraud investigation.
Now with the eyes of the world on Trump as he campaigns again for the US presidency, his former partners have finally chalked up one achievement he couldn't. And they've done it with the kind of baggage that once kept both them and Trump out of the Australian casino business. 'Dangerous' casino bids Trump and the Cheng family first came into each other's orbit as part of rival bids for Sydney's first casino at Darling Harbour in 1987.
This put both parties on the radar of New South Wales authorities, who were concerned about their business associations with organised crime figures. Trump was 40 years old, a.