Thomas Sung was born in Shanghai in 1935. He lived in Chongqing during the Resist Japan war, and moved to Hong Kong in 1948. His family briefly stayed in Brazil and eventually immigrated to the United States in 1952. He earned a bachelor and a master’s degree in agricultural economics in 1959 and continued his study in accounting and finance for two years at the University of Florida. While attending the University, he managed his family’s ranch until 1961 when he moved to New York. He worked with several large corporations as an economic and financial analyst while attending law school at night and began his legal career in 1965 after graduating from Brooklyn Law School. His practice was largely concentrated in immigration and general law. In 1984, he founded the Abacus Federal Savings Bank which also owns Abacus Insurance Agency Corp and Abacus International Capital Corp. In his career as an attorney and banker, he devoted countless hours to pro bono work for the Chinese community. The mission of the Bank is to also serve the community. In 2012, the Bank was unfortunately indicted by New York County District Attorney’s office on various charges relating to mortgage fraud. The Bank survived the indictment; after 5 months of trial, the Bank was totally vindicated. The documentary film, “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail,” captured vividly the legal proceedings. The film received many awards including Oscar nomination, Emmy Award and Silver Gavel Award by the American Bar Association, etc.
Sunday, November 29, 2020
Abacus Bank Founder Thomas Sung
This recording and transcript form part of a collection of oral history interviews conducted by the Chao Center for Asian Studies at Rice University. This collection includes audio recordings and transcripts of interviews with Asian Americans native to or living in Houston.
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