Hin Leong Trading founder on trial accused of cheating HSBC

China Aviation Oil (Singapore)

11/04/2023 14:20

By Chen Lin
       SINGAPORE, April 11 (Reuters) - The 81-year-old founder
of collapsed oil trading firm Hin Leong Trading Pte Ltd went on
trial in Singapore on Tuesday accused of forgery and cheating
HSBC  HSBA.L  out of $111.7 million.
    The former oil tycoon Lim Oon Kuin, also known as O.K. Lim,
attended court in a wheelchair and pleaded not guilty through a
Mandarin interpreter, Singaporean media outlet CNA reported.
    Lim's lawyer Davinder Singh could not immediately be
contacted for comment.
    The trial focuses on three out of a total of 130 charges. It
  has been fixed for 49 days and is expected to run until July.
    The prosecutor's opening statement on Tuesday said HSBC
disbursed $111.7 million in March 2020 to Hin Leong as payment
for two oil sales contracts the trader purported to have entered
into with China Aviation Oil (Singapore) Corp Ltd (CAO)
 CNAO.SI  and Unipec Singapore Pte Ltd.
    "The two transactions were complete fabrications, concocted
on the accused's (Lim's) directions, and the invoice financing
applications were supported by forged or fabricated
documentation," the deputy public prosecutors said in court
documents seen by Reuters.
    CAO and Unipec told HSBC "they had not entered into, and had
no record of, each of their respective alleged transaction with
Hin Leong," the prosecutors said.
    They said HSBC had lodged a police report on April 21, 2020.
    Unipec's parent company Sinopec  600028.SS  told Reuters it
could not comment given the ongoing court case.
    HSBC could not be immediately reached for comment.
    CAO in emailed comment said it told HSBC in April 2020 it
had not entered into the alleged sales contract with Hin Leong
without specifying the precise date.
    Singapore's High Court in March 2021, approved an
application to wind up Hin Leong after it failed to restructure
about $4 billion in debt following a crash in the oil price
during the COVID-19 pandemic.
    The court documents seen by Reuters said that at the time of
the alleged offences, Lim was managing director and a 75%
shareholder of Hin Leong Trading. 
    The firm was set up in 1973 and was owned by Lim and his
children Evan Lim and Lim Huey Ching.
    A Singapore court in May 2021 approved a freeze on up to
$3.5 billion of the Lim family assets, which could increase the
chances of debt recovery from the former oil trading empire that
counts some of the world's biggest banks among its creditors.

 (Reporting by Chen Lin; Additional reporting by Aizhu Chen;
Writing by Xinghui Kok, Florence Tan and Barbara Lewis)
 ((Lin.chen@thomsonreuters.com;))