One claim is that he is the son of an automobile spare parts trader and left school in the seventh grade upon which he sold ice pops to support his family.

[8] Author Sam Setyautama wrote that Winata had an adoptive father named Bisri Artawinata, who was a village head in Takokak, Sukabumi, West Java.

[11] Tempo magazine in 1999 reported that Tommy started his business when 15 years old after receiving an order for the construction of military dormitory barracks in Irian Jaya.

Silalahi, former secretary general of the Mining and Energy Ministry and minister of State Apparatus Empowerment in President Suharto's sixth Development Cabinet.

The bank was taken over by the Army and Winata was invited to take part in its restructuring in 1987, as he already had a long record of doing business with the military and was an associate of Edi Sudradjat and T.B.

[26] Winata also has business ventures outside of Indonesia, including in Timor Leste, where he was given approval in secret to build a hotel and shopping complex on government-owned land without having to submit his bid to a tendering process.

[1][27] Besides his legal operations, Tomy is also a member of the so-called "nine dragons", a group comprising the major individuals behind Jakarta's gambling industry, despite the practice being banned in Indonesia.

[28] In April 2000, President Abdurrahman Wahid ordered police to arrest Winata for allegedly running gambling activities on a cruise ship in waters off Jakarta.

Winata has long cultivated relationships with Indonesia's political elite, since the regime of former president Suharto, whose family was referred to as 'Cendana' after the name of the Central Jakarta street where they lived.

[35]Author Christian Chua's 2008 book Chinese Big Business in Indonesia: The State of Capital claims that political patronage secured preferential treatment for Winata's businesses, with economist and future finance minister Chatib Basri alleging it is an "open secret" in Jakarta that cigars and other luxury goods in a shop at Winata's Borobudur Hotel were substantially cheaper because the owner did not have to pay taxes on the goods.

Trie could not arrange such a meeting but offered Winata a seat next to Clinton at a 19 February 1996 fundraiser at the Hay-Adams Hotel in Washington, DC.

[40] Winata runs a rescue center for the critically endangered Sumatran tiger in Tambling Wildlife Nature Conservation, a park in Lampung Province, Sumatra.

[47] Winata has cooperated with the Indonesian Narcotics Agency (Badan Narkotika Nasional-BNN) to organize a drug rehabilitation[48] program in TWNC.

This program was presented by Winata at the UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) 2013 Annual Meeting in Vienna, Austria.

"[53] Winata filed libel charges against PT Tempo Inti Media, editor-in-chief Bambang Harymurti, deputy chief editor Toriq Hadad, reporters Ahmad Taufik, Bernarda Rurit and Cahyo Junaidi, publisher Fikri Jufri and corporate director Zulkifli Lubis.

[54] On 16 September 2004, Bambang Harymurti was found guilty of "defamation and false reporting" and sentenced to a year in prison, but article author Ahmad Taufik and editor Iskandar Ali were exonerated.

[1] BBC News described the case as being "widely criticised as an attack on Indonesia's press",[56] and Amnesty International declared Harymutri to be a prisoner of conscience.

[57] On 9 February 2005, Harymutri's sentence was overturned by the Supreme Court of Indonesia, a spokesperson for which stated, "We want to ensure that journalists are protected.

"[58] A leaked diplomatic cable described Winata as having "a specially close relationship" with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono[59] and alleged that he was the head of a crime syndicate called "The Gang of Nine" or "The Nine Dragons".

[59] Winata denied the allegations, dismissing them as the gossip of rival politicians[59] and stating, "I would prefer to lick your shoes [...] than for you to believe the WikiLeaks rumors.