LIM Oon Kuin, a former oil tycoon and founder of collapsed oil trader Hin Leong Trading, was on Friday (May 10) found guilty of three criminal charges after a lengthy 62-day trial at the state courts.
Two of the charges against the 82-year-old former billionaire pertain to cheating HSBC, and the third charge was for instigating a contracts executive of Hin Leong to forge a false document for the ultimate purpose of cheating. The charges involved a total of US$111.7 million.
The judgement was delivered in the state courts by Judge Toh Han Li. Prosecutors were led by Deputy Public Prosecutor Christopher Ong, while Lim was represented by a team of lawyers from Davinder Singh Chambers.
Lim, who is 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 these charges.
In the delivery of his oral judgement, Judge Toh in court on Friday said that Lim’s claims that he had slowed down in his activities at Hin Leong since 2010 “did not accord” with evidence given by witnesses that were 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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