The company had longstanding ties to leaders in both China and the United States. Its executives have struck business deals with former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida as well as the family of the former Chinese prime minister Wen Jiabao, according to records obtained by The New York Times.

But global regulators started to ask questions about its debt-fueled buying binge, as well as its ownership structure. Like other large Chinese conglomerates, HNA is a vast network of public and private companies, subsidiaries and affiliates under a single corporate umbrella. In the United States, regulators asked HNA about its links to the Chinese government, according to court documents.

HNA has since reversed course, selling off billions of dollars in assets and restructuring its operations. The company also realigned its management team after the death of its co-chairman Wang Jian, who the company says fell off a wall in a tourist accident in the south of France in early July. Mr. Tan was recently named head of HNA International, a post formerly held by Mr. Wang, while Mr. Yang is stepping down as president of HNA Group North America with plans to leave the company.

“The problem with HNA is not that they’re a Chinese company. It’s about transparency,” said Derek Scissors, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. “They say, ‘Who is HNA?’ No one knows who owns this company.”

Submitting to Cfius

After the election of Mr. Trump, Mr. Scaramucci started laying the groundwork to sell SkyBridge, a New York firm that invests clients’ money in hedge funds. Mr. Scaramucci, a former Goldman Sachs executive who had served as a Trump campaign adviser, was positioning himself for a role in the administration and wanted to be free of potential conflicts.

In December 2016, he hired Greg Fleming, a respected investment banker, to find a buyer for the firm. Within weeks, Mr. Scaramucci said, there were four bids, although he wouldn’t identify the other potential buyers or the price HNA agreed to pay.