OK Lim's wife claims her half-share of S$33.4m GCB sale proceeds

Nov 09, 2021

THE wife of Lim Oon Kuin has taken out legal proceedings against the liquidators of the oil trader Hin Leong Trading founded by her husband, claiming that she is entitled to a 50 per cent interest in a Good Class Bungalow (GCB) recently sold for S$33.39 million.

Tan Sook Eng filed an originating summons, naming the firm in compulsory liquidation and its 2 liquidators as defendants in the legal action launched on Oct 20.

She is seeking a declaration that she is the legal and beneficial owner of 50 per cent interest in the freehold bungalow on a plot of under 20,000 square feet in Second Avenue. Hence, she argues that she is entitled to be paid 50 per cent of the sale proceeds of the property less sale expenses and legal fees.

Goh Thien Phong and Chan Kheng Tek, the liquidators of the oil trader embroiled in a fraud scandal, as well as the firm itself, are all represented by Drew & Napier lawyer Chia Voon Jiet.

The case, scheduled to be heard on Thursday (Nov 11), is one of the string of legal proceedings connected to the liquidation of the Hin Leong empire that collapsed last year when oil prices plunged to historic lows as economies shut down to curtail the outbreak of the coronavirus.

The GCB, sold through a tender exercise that closed at end-September, is among the 9 properties in Singapore and Australia frozen by the High Court to recoup US$3.5 billion in debt from the collapsed oil trader, according to an earlier report by The Straits Times.

It has a total gross floor area of about 10,000 square feet spanning three levels with five bedrooms, as well as a swimming pool and a squash court. Until the later part of last year, the property had been tenanted.

Ng Poh Choo is the buyer of the property, and she is the wife of Tan Yeow Khoon - former executive chairman of logistics group Cogent bought out by Chinese shipping company Cosco Shipping International (Singapore) and delisted from the Singapore Exchange in 2018.

The tender sale came as the judicial managers-turned-liquidators of Hin Leong had succeeded in obtaining a Mareva injunction to freeze the Lim family's assets worldwide up to a value of US$3.5 billion. Goh and Chan reportedly wanted the process of realising the property to be "very transparent and open to a wide network of bidders".

Lim faces 130 charges involving US$2.7 billion in alleged fraudulent loans disbursed, and the criminal proceedings are ongoing.