Singapore businessman Lim Oon Kuin is on trial Tuesday for three charges related to cheating and forgery, after his collapsed oil firm Hin Leong Trading Pte. owed about US$3.5 billion to banks. He pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors alleged that Lim, the 81-year-old founder of Hin Leong, had instigated an employee to fraudulently create a false electronic record, and deceived HSBC Holdings Plc. He faces as much as 10 years in jail for each of the three charges.
Better known as OK Lim, he is up against a total of 130 charges after Hin Leong was accused of hiding more than $800 million in losses and leaving more than 20 banks with huge liabilities.
Through Hin Leong, Lim deceived HSBC by entering into two purported oil sale contracts with China Aviation Oil (Singapore) Corp. and Unipec Singapore Pte, and submitted invoice-financing applications to support those transactions, Deputy Public Prosecutor Christopher Ong told the court.
“In fact, the two transactions were complete fabrications, concocted on the accused’s directions,” Ong said. “The applications were supported by forged or fabricated documentation” that induced HSBC into disbursing US$111.68 million to the company, he said.
In 2021, the businessman denied allegations made by HSBC that he used forged documents to obtain financing.
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Lim, once an influential figure in Singapore’s oil and shipping trading industry, appeared in court in a wheelchair. Hin Leong’s fallout was the biggest among a string of failures across Singapore’s commodities sector in recent years. HSBC and DBS Group Holdings Ltd. are among the bank creditors which provided trade finance to Hin Leong for years.
The case also spawned numerous civil lawsuits from banks against the firm. In turn, Hin Leong sued its auditor Deloitte & Touche LLP for allegedly failing to detect “serious irregularities” in its financial statements for more than a decade.
The case is PP v Lim Oon Kuin, SC-905820-2020, Singapore State Courts.
