Gary Tanaka

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Gary Tanaka is a Japanese-American businessman who co-founded the investment company Amerindo Investments in 1979 along with Alberto Vilar. Tanaka was an undergraduate at MIT, followed by a PhD at Imperial College London.

He is perhaps best known for his generous donation of £27m to Imperial College, which resulted in a new building in 2004, designed by the international architecture, planning and design studio Foster and Partners. It is known as the Tanaka Business School and combines the business school's facilities with a new front entrance for the College.

Along with Vilar, he was arrested in July 2005 and is currently charged with fraud. They are accused of stealing $5 million from a client of Amerindo, which they allegedly used for personal use and donations to various philanthropic causes, a major pursuit of Vilar's.

Tanaka also owns several racehorses including the champion Miler, Rakti.

[edit] References

Stewart, James B., “The Opera Lover: How Alberto Vilar's Passion for Philantropy Landed Him in Jail”, The New Yorker, 13th & 20th February 2006. Mostly an account of Vilar's philanthropy, but includes the arrest and subsequent fate of both men