Michael George DeSombre

Michael George DeSombre is an American lawyer, Republican fundraiser, chairman of Save the Children Hong Kong. Born in the United States, DeSombre now resides in Hong Kong with his wife and children. DeSombre graduated from Stanford University in 1990 with a BA in Quantitative Economics and a MA in East Asian Studies. DeSombre graduated from Harvard Law School and begin his legal career at Sullivan & Cromwell in 1995. He moved to Hong Kong in 1997 and heads up Sullivan & Cromwell's mergers and acquisitions practice for Asia. DeSombre is fluent in Mandarin, and is admitted to practice law in New York and Hong Kong. DeSombre is recognized as one of the preeminent M&A and private equity lawyers in the world by major legal publications such as Chambers Global, IFLR, Asia Law and Practice and Euromoney and is a frequent speaker on the art of negotiation and acquisitions of US public companies. DeSombre was rumored to be considered for the position of Assistant Secretary of East Asia in the early days of the Donald J. Trump presidency.
Progressive Reform Proposals
On February 19, 2013 DeSombre circulated to Republicans in Hong Kong proposals to introduce a path to citizenship for immigrants, and increase Republican support among Asian Americans and more moderate voters.
Fundraiser for Jeb Bush Presidential Campaign
DeSombre organized a September 2015 fundraiser in Hong Kong for 2016 presidential campaign. In an interview with the South China Morning Post, DeSombre described the candidate and atmosphere:

"Jeb was energised, passionate and is a really charismatic guy. It was a very entertaining 45 minutes".
Republicans Overseas Support of President Trump
The mission of the DeSombre-led Republicans Overseas is “To inspire the nine million Americans living overseas to engage more fully in the U.S. democratic political process through the provision of briefings, policy research and advocacy.” In 2016, the year of the United States presidential election, Republicans Overseas Incorporated reported on its Form 990-EZ filed with the Internal Revenue Service spending only US$30,850.
After Donald J. Trump accepted the Republican Party nomination, Dr Jan Halper-Hayes, a vice-president of the DeSombre-led Republicans Overseas, told the BBC's Today programme that she was "very concerned" about Mr Trump's behaviour. However, Republicans Overseas has published a cease-and-desist letter sent to Halper-Hayes, showing that she was not vice-president of Republicans Overseas at the time, and not a representative of the organization.
DeSombre donated US$25,000 to Trump's inauguration.
Trump Administration Nomination
In 2017, the Trump Administration considered DeSombre for the post of assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, but DeSombre, a top overseas Republican fundraiser, lost his main advocate when President Trump fired his first chief of staff, Reince Priebus.
However, donors to the inaugural who were eventually nominated for positions in the Trump Administration typically donated much larger amounts; ambassador to the United Kingdom Robert Wood Johnson, the owner of the New York Jets donated $1 million to the inauguration, Joseph Craft III, president and CEO of Alliance Resource Partners, donated $1 million to the inauguration and his wife, Kelly Knight Craft, became U.S. ambassador to Canada, and Doug Manchester, owner of Manchester Financial Group donated $1 million to the inauguration and was nominated as U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas.
Save the Children
DeSombre serves as chairman of Save the Children Hong Kong, which raises funds to support programmes in China and other countries.
Failed FATCA Lawsuit
Republicans Overseas has funded a lawsuit, Crawford, et al. vs. US Department of Treasury, et al., to challenge FATCA. In April 2018, the Supreme Court denied “certiorari” to the plaintiffs, which left standing a Sixth Circuit decision handed down in August 2017 - which, as reported, found that the plaintiffs lacked the standing to sue, and that the harms they claimed to have suffered as a result of the law were not, in fact, directly caused by it - is final.
Although the decision won't come as a surprise to many FATCA watchers, who have seen the difficulties the plaintiffs in the case have encountered over the years they've been battling the law that obliges non-US financial institutions to report to the US tax authorities on all offshore accounts held by American citizens, it was nevertheless a crushing disappointment to expatriates who had relied on Republicans Overseas claims that expatriates would at least get another day in court to argue their case.

DeSombre was unable to successfully lobby Republicans in Congress to include Republicans Overseas proposed language in the Tax Cut & Jobs Act passed by Congress and signed into law by President Trump. Not only did the Tax Cut & Jobs Act fail to replace citizenship-based taxation with Territorial Taxation for Individuals (though it did for corporations), it also failed to repeal FATCA, and, imposed significant new tax burdens on overseas Americans who own small businesses outside the United States.

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