Banker, television producer, media proprietor, screenwriter
Yearsactive
1971–present
Spouse
Ethel Fong (1998–present)
Children
2
Jean Chalopin (French pronunciation:[ʒɑ̃ʃalɔpɛ̃]; born 31 May 1950) is a French businessman, banker and former television animation producer. In 1971, he founded the production companyDIC Entertainment, which specialized in children-oriented animated television and film productions. Through DIC he produced numerous successful television series, including Inspector Gadget, which he also co-created (and which grew into a namesake media franchise), The Real Ghostbusters, The Littles and Dennis the Menace. Chalopin also co-wrote DIC's first two major productions, Ulysses 31 and The Mysterious Cities of Gold. After selling off his ownership in DIC, he founded a second company, C&D, in 1987, through which he continued to produce cartoons until its closure in 1996. Chalopin remained active as a writer, producer and creative consultant in the years to follow. More recently, however, he has shifted his focus onto a career in banking.
Career
In 1968, Chalopin formed an advertising company named the Office de Gestion et d'Action Publicitaire (OGAP, Office of Management and Advertising Action). In 1971, with the backing of the Compagnie Luxembourgeoise de Télédiffusion, Chalopin renamed the company to Diffusion Information Commercial (DIC, Commercial Information Distribution) which later evolved into DIC Entertainment. At DIC, he wrote, developed and produced programmes animated by overseas studios. DIC's first major series were the French-Japanese co-productions Ulysses 31 and The Mysterious Cities of Gold, which Chalopin produced and co-wrote. Subsequently, he co-created Inspector Gadget together with Andy Heyward and Bruno Bianchi; its launch in 1983, concurrently with The Littles, marked DIC's foray into the American marketplace.
In 1987, Chalopin founded the company Créativité et Développement, aka C&D (eng: Creativity and Development), after selling his shares in DIC, and continued to produce cartoons in the late 1980s and 1990s. C&D had offices in Paris and Tokyo while setting up Jetlag Productions as its American affiliated company. C&D had purchased the DIC library foreign distribution rights from Saban Entertainment soon after Saban had acquired them from DIC in 1987. In 1996, Chalopin sold the C&D library to Fox Kids Worldwide, while the company itself was absorbed into Saban International Paris.
After moving to the Bahamas in 1987, Chalopin began investing in Deltec Bank and Trust, eventually becoming its largest shareholder. In 2010, Chalopin became chairman of Deltec Bank and Trust and parent company Deltec International Group. As chairman he sought out cryptocurrency-related businesses, including Tether and its controlling company Bitfinex in 2018. At that time, Deltec was the only bank willing to work with the cryptocurrency, after it and Bitfinex lost their relationship with their Taiwanese banks in early 2017.
In 2020, Chalopin's holding company FBH Corporation acquired Farmington State Bank (FSB), a single-location community bank in Farmington, Washington, for $3.1 million. In FBH Corporation's April 2020 application to the Federal Reserve, it committed that FSB would not change its business plan in any manner without first ensuring that such changes would not result in a change in the general character of the FSB's business. FSB, which until then had focused on agricultural loans, began to offer services to the blockchain and cannabis industries under the name Moonstone Bank.
In October 2021, Deltec International Group, Deltec's parent company, executed a $50 million promissory note payable to Norton Hall Ltd., an Antiguan entity which was, according to its corporate service provider, beneficially owned by Sam Bankman-Fried. Ryan Salame, then co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, signed the loan on Norton Hall Ltd.'s behalf as director, though its corporate service provider later said that he had never held that position. The funds were transferred in November 2021 as Tether stablecoins from an Alameda Research account on FTX. Deltec later asserted that it was unaware that the funding came from Alameda. In March 2023, Deltec agreed to repay the principal and interest to the FTX bankruptcy estate.
In early 2022, FBH Corporation accepted an investment of $11.5 million from Alameda, at a valuation of roughly $115 million. In Q3 2022, FSB's deposit base grew from $12.5 million to $84 million. In January 2023, after FTX's failure, US federal prosecutors seized nearly $50 million in deposits at FSB held by FTX Digital Markets. FSB announced its intention to return to community banking. In August 2023, the bank was ordered to wind down in a Federal Reserve enforcement action which alleged it had improperly changed its business plan without notifying regulators. The bank's deposits and assets were later sold to the Bank of Eastern Oregon.
Chalopin is married to Singaporean former model Ethel Fong Sau Yee, who he married in 1998 in Château de Farcheville. Chalopin owned the castle from 1989 to 2006 before selling it. They have a son, Janvier, and a daughter, Tanis.
