Former Eagle Group boss Chen-Young dies at 82

DR PAUL Chen-Young, one of the most high-profile businessmen to become victim to the 1990s financial meltdown in Jamaica, has died.

The former chairman of the Eagle Group of Companies passed away in Miami, Florida, yesterday at age 82.

Chen-Young was born in Kingston in 1938 and was educated at Clarendon College, Howard University, and the University of Pittsburgh.

He started his career as an economist at the World Bank but moved to become the deputy general manager at the Development Bank of Jamaica in 1968. He spent two years in the position before he went to form several investment and consultation firms.

Chen-Young became the chairman of several entities in The Eagle Group in 1983.

The Eagle Group collapsed with the crumbling of the financial sector in the mid-1990s and was taken over by the government-owned Financial Sector Adjustment Company (FINSAC).

Chen-Young emigrated to the United States after being slapped with a $900-million lawsuit by the Eagle Merchant Bank and Crown Eagle Life Insurance Company, two firms he founded, in the FINSAC era.

He made several unsuccessful attempts to return home in recent years, including a planned appearance at the so-called FINSAC commission of enquiry.

In 2017, the Court of Appeal, agreeing there was the real possibility of bias, ordered a retrial in a lawsuit first brought against Chen-Young over two decades ago to recover millions of dollars in liabilities to the institutions.

The appeal related to a May 2006 judgment by Supreme Court Justice Roy Anderson, mostly in favour of Eagle Merchant Bank and Crown Eagle Life Insurance Company – entities that were taken over by the State in the financial rescue programme of the 1990s – and against Chen-Young and other respondents who were sued in November 1998.

During his career, Chen-Young served on the board of the Bank of Jamaica, the Development Bank of Jamaica, the National Housing Trust, and the National Commission for Science and Technology.