Tan was born in Puchong New Village in Selangor on 24 September 1940 to a poor family. He helped out at his parent's hawker stall while still in school. He studied in a missionary school, and after leaving school, he worked as a clerk with Lembaga Lektrik Negara while studying part-time to finish his High School Certificate. He also worked as a laboratory technician with LLN, then moved on to be an investigator of Inland Revenue Board and a tax consultant with Esso. Tan married his first wife, Catherine Chong, who is a paraplegic which they have two children, he then together with his second wife, Penny Chang, have another three daughters. Tan after much hiccups in life still a respected member of society, is a born-again Christian who likes to maintain a low profile.
Political and business career
In 1970, Tan became the General Manager of Genting Highlands Berhad, helping Lim Goh Tong to establish Genting Highlands Resort as a successful tourist destination. In 1976, he attended a senior management course at Harvard University. In 1977, he was invited by the then MCA president Lee San Choon to head the Koperatif Sebaguna Malaysia and Multi-Purpose Holdings Berhad, the corporate structure through which the MCA hoped to encourage Chinese participation in all areas of economic development. He joined the party and became involved in politics. In 1978 general election, Tan made his political debut and elected as the Member of Parliament, winning a parliamentary seat in Raub, Pahang. The following year, he was elected to the party's Central Committee and appointed Chairman of MCA Wilayah Persekutuan State Liaison Committee. In 1982 general election, he cinched a landslide victory for the parliamentary seat in the opposition stronghold of Damansara, Selangor. 1984 saw him appointed as vice-president of the MCA. In March 1984, Tan was sacked as vice-president from the MCA along with Lee Kim Sai as well as other members for urging the party to investigate its member records for the presence of non-existent people, an issue that had sparked off factionalism and crisis within the party. However, he and the other 13 were all reinstated two months later with the support of 1,600 MCA members in an extraordinary general meeting. In November 1985, he was voted to be president of the MCA winning 76.9% of the votes cast, the largest majority in the party's history, and the first challenger since 1954 to win national leadership. In a memoir published by Robert Kuok, it was revealed that the MCA leadership approached Kuok to provide a bail payment for Tan in 1986. The amount paid by Kuok was S$20 million.
Pan-El crisis
Tan remained a highly prominent member of the corporate sector, controlling numerous companies, including Sigma International, which had a 22.6% stake in Pan-Electric Industries, a Singaporean-based company. Pan-Electric entering receivership forced the closure of the Singapore and Kuala Lumpur stock exchanges between December 2 and 4 1985, to try to contain the fallout on leveraged stockbroking firms. On 12 December 1985, Tan signed an agreement that gave the troubled company S$ 20 million of funds through an interest-free loan and allowed it to resume trading. In 1986 he was charged in Singapore with abetting criminal breach of trust relating to the collapse of Pan-El. He was convicted and sentenced to two years imprisonment by Singapore High Court JusticeLai Kew Chai. In Lai's judgement, Lai said Tan's offences had "struck at the very heart, integrity, reputation and confidence of Singapore as a commercial city and financial centre". After his sentencing, Tan in 1987 relinquished his position as MCA President and MP for Gopeng, Perak that he just won in 1986 general election earlier. In 1988 Tan was also sentenced and imprisoned in Malaysia, declared a bankrupt, and reportedly owed over RM 400 million, at the time roughly equivalent to more than 100 million US dollars. He was ordered to pay RM1000 a month to the Official Assignee and the New Straits Times estimated it would take him 35,316 years to pay off his outstanding claims. In the mid-1990s, after full repayment, Tan was discharged from bankruptcy. In 2012, a book by the former chief prosecutorGlenn Knight revealed that Chief Justice Yong Pung How stated in a 1996 hearing that Tan Koon Swan had been wrongfully charged in the Pan-El case. However, the book has been heavily criticised as containing factual errors.
