LIM Oon Kuin, a former oil tycoon and founder of collapsed oil trader Hin Leong Trading, was on Friday (May 10) convicted of three criminal charges after a trial running more than 60 days in the State Courts.
Two charges against the 82-year-old former billionaire pertained to cheating HSBC, and the third was for instigating a contracts executive of Hin Leong to forge a document for the ultimate purpose of cheating. The charges involved a total of US$111.7 million.
The judgment was delivered in the State Courts by Judge Toh Han Li. Prosecutors were led by Deputy Public Prosecutor Christopher Ong; Lim was represented by a team of lawyers from Davinder Singh Chambers.
Lim, better known in the industry as OK Lim, faced a total of 130 criminal charges of forgery and cheating, involving a collective sum of US$2.7 billion. Prosecutors proceeded to trial on three of them.
In the delivery of his oral judgment on Friday, Judge Toh said Lim’s claims that he had slowed down in his activities at Hin Leong since 2010 “did not accord” with evidence given by witnesses called to the stand by the prosecution.
Such witnesses include former Hin Leong employees such as Lim’s former personal assistant Serene Seng, and former contracts executive Freddy Tan.
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Judge Toh noted that Lim had testified in court that Hin Leong staff continued to look for him. Lim had also continued to “instruct, conduct and negotiate” deals himself, the court heard.
“I find that until the time he stepped down, the accused continued to be the ‘big boss’ of Hin Leong,” the judge said.
Judge Toh said that the relevant issues that arose in the case included Lim’s involvement in the matters of Hin Leong and his statements to the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD).
Other issues taken into account were matters such as who had directed Tan to create documents for the fictitious transaction with China Aviation Oil (Singapore) (CAO), who had instructed the staff of Hin Leong to submit the discounting application for the bogus Unipec transaction, and whether HSBC was deceived into disbursing assets to Hin Leong on the back of the two transactions.
One of Lim’s key arguments in court was that he had delegated the bulk of his work at Hin Leong to a group of trusted employees from 2010 – one of whom was Seng. Lim also claimed that these employees were the ones who fabricated or forged the documents that Hin Leong needed, in order to get financing from HSBC for the two fictitious deals.
Lim’s lawyers had, over the course of the trial, attempted to pin down inconsistencies in Seng’s testimony in court, and sought to impeach his credibility as a witness.
Judge Toh said that while Seng may have, as Lim’s personal assistant, liaised with banks from time to time, this was “completely different” from her allegedly fabricating documents to obtain financing from lenders.
He added it was “quite unfathomable” as to why she would do such things when there was no underlying contract with CAO.
The judge, however, acknowledged that Seng had not given a complete account of what had transpired in her statements to the CAD or in the documents filed in the High Court for the civil trial.
To recap, Lim, along with his two children and Seng, is also facing a civil suit in the High Court, where liquidators from PwC and Hin Leong’s top creditor HSBC are suing the four individuals for US$3.5 billion. The trial is ongoing.
“It should be noted that her evidence in court, while implicating the accused, also implicated herself,” Judge Toh said, adding that Seng’s testimony was, in parts, “damaging to her position” in the civil trial. Her previous statements to the CAD also “did not completely exonerate” Lim, the court heard.
Judge Toh also pointed out that although checks by HSBC for the CAO and Unipec transactions did not completely follow the bank’s internal procedure, the lender would have ultimately not approved the discounting applications if it had known the underlying contracts were fictitious ones.
Prosecutors for this case are expected to make their submissions for sentencing by Jul 5; the defence will make its submissions by Aug 30. Replies will take till Sep 20.
Lim is expected to be sentenced on Oct 3, so his bail of S$4 million will be extended till then.
The Singapore Police Force said on Friday that Lim faces imprisonment of up to 10 years for each charge levelled against him. He will also be liable to a fine for each charge.
