By NI Staff, Contributors

Top Takeaways:

• Banking pressure: HSBC released a 28-year security interest over Pacific Cigar Company six days before U.S. and U.K. sanctions on Chen Zhi.
• Invoicing shift: Multiple industry sources and PCC customers say invoices are now being routed through Tang Tobacco Limited, PCC’s unsanctioned 50% shareholder.
• Governance questions: PCC filings show a director affiliated with Lee Law Firm, identified in sworn U.S. court testimony as Chen Zhi’s personal law firm, though no evidence has emerged that she worked on Chen-related matters.

For nearly three decades, The Pacific Cigar Company Limited (PCC), Asia’s largest cigar company, has served as the exclusive Habanos distributor for Asia-Pacific, supplying Cuban cigars to more than 30 markets from its Hong Kong base.

Founded by Sir David Tang in 1992, PCC built its reputation on continuity, discretion, and a dominant position in one of the world’s most important Cuban cigar regions. Over the past eight months, all three have been strained.

Public filings, industry sources, and court records from proceedings in Spain, the British Virgin Islands, and the United States now paint a consistent picture: PCC has faced mounting institutional pressure since Chen Zhi was sanctioned in October 2025 and has quietly shifted its invoicing function to Tang Tobacco Limited, its 50% joint-venture partner.

PCC did not respond to detailed questions prior to publication.

A 50/50 Structure, One Troubled Connection

PCC’s ownership, as confirmed by its 2025 Annual Return filed with the Hong Kong Companies Registry, is evenly split. Altabana SL, the Madrid-registered holding company through which Habanos S.A. takes equity stakes in its distributors worldwide, holds 50%. The other 50% is held by Tang Tobacco Limited, a British Virgin Islands entity controlled by the Tang family, whose Hong Kong entity is chaired by Lawrence Lau.

This structure is common throughout the Habanos distribution network. Altabana typically takes a stake in exclusive distributors, and Habanos executives serve on local boards. PCC’s board, as listed in the same filing, includes Habanos S.A. executives, along with PCC Chief Executive Officer Dag Holmboe and PCC Chief Financial Officer Freddy Ho.

One additional board member stands out: Hong Kong lawyer Jacqueline Lee, a partner at Lee Law Firm. Sworn testimony filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York states that Lee Law Firm is Chen Zhi’s personal law firm. Cosimo Borrelli, a restructuring specialist who claims authority over 25 of the 30 BVI entities through which Chen held assets, testified that he contacted the firm before accepting his mandate.

It is not established that Lee herself worked on Chen-related matters, and her continued presence on PCC’s board has not been independently verified since the August 2025 filing.

The Bank That Left Six Days Early

The clearest documentary evidence of PCC’s difficulties is its banking relationship. A Deed of Release filed with the Hong Kong Companies Registry shows that HSBC discharged a debenture, a general charge on PCC’s assets, which had been in place since October 1997. The release is dated Oct. 8, 2025.

Six days later, on Oct. 14, the United States and the United Kingdom sanctioned Chen Zhi, the Cambodia-based businessman behind Prince Group. The U.S. Treasury described the action as the largest sanctions effort ever directed at Southeast Asian cybercrime networks and alleged that Chen’s organization controlled a major cyberfraud enterprise in Cambodia.

Chen holds a 57.1% stake in Allied Cigar Corporation, the investor group that acquired Tabacalera SLU from Imperial Brands in 2020. Through that group, he held an indirect interest in Altabana and, by extension, in PCC. The timing of HSBC’s release does not necessarily indicate advance notice of sanctions. Large international banks routinely monitor clients against adverse media, court filings, and commercial risk databases rather than waiting for formal government designations.

Chen’s name had circulated publicly for years before the October sanctions, including in Radio Free Asia’s 2022 reporting and in subsequent investigations into the ownership structure of Habanos distributors in Europe. Chen was arrested in Cambodia and transferred to China in early January 2026, where he is expected to face investigations into bribery, money laundering, and other alleged offenses.

The broader cigar industry has already felt the fallout. Nicotine Insider previously reported that Chen’s arrest and sanctions disrupted cigar manufacturing, ownership, and supply chains worldwide. Separate reporting detailed how banks cut off European Cuban cigar distributors and how sanctions affected Tabacalera de Garcia, the Dominican cigar factory linked to the same ownership network.

“They No Longer Have a Plan B”

According to an industry source with direct knowledge of PCC’s operations, the company changed banks more than once after HSBC’s exit and began routing invoicing through Tang Tobacco Limited, which banks with OCBC, rather than continuing to invoice customers in PCC’s name.

Several PCC customers operating across multiple regions confirmed receiving invoices from Tang Tobacco rather than from PCC. Habanos distributors are generally accustomed to managing banking risk by maintaining relationships with multiple institutions.

“The fact that they had to change invoicing altogether suggests they no longer have a plan B,” an Asian industry source said.

The timing aligns with another corporate filing. On March 31, 2026, Equity Secretarial Services Limited resigned as company secretary for both PCC and Tang Tobacco Limited’s Hong Kong entity. Equity Secretarial Services did not respond to questions about the reason for its departure.

Another industry source said Cathay Pacific Cargo has stopped handling PCC shipments in Asia. Cathay Pacific did not respond to requests for comment before publication, and Nicotine Insider was unable to independently verify the claim.

Liquidation Has Not Reached PCC

Chen’s stake in Allied Cigar Corporation is now the subject of proceedings in the British Virgin Islands, Hong Kong, and New York.

In January 2026, Interpath Advisory was appointed provisional liquidator of 30 BVI entities linked to Chen. Paul Pretlove has chaired both Tabacalera SL and Allied Cigar Corporation SL since February. On June 11, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn recognized the BVI liquidation proceedings in New York, a prerequisite for any sale of Chen’s stake in the United States.

None of those proceedings directly changes PCC’s board or ownership structure. No changes have been publicly filed in Hong Kong since August 2025.

The evidence suggests that everything surrounding PCC has changed: the bank that financed it for 28 years, the firm that handled its corporate filings, the alleged logistics channel that moved its goods, and the name now appearing on customer invoices. PCC’s exclusive distribution rights, Asia-Pacific footprint, and day-to-day operations appear, for now, intact.

What remains unclear is how long a company can continue operating normally as institutions around it increasingly treat sanctions exposure as a risk factor — and what happens once courts determine who controls the other half of the ownership chain tied to Habanos S.A.