SINGAPORE: The assets of a businessman were ordered frozen by the High Court after concerns that he might not make good on the balance of S$7.56 million in the divorce settlement he has with his ex-wife.
The man works in the metal trading industry and married his former wife in India in 2004.
They have two children. By 2022, the wife filed for divorce in Singapore and was supposed to receive S$20 million, the total of the divorce settlement, according to a report in Mothership.
The husband was supposed to pay $312,500 every month until June 2027 to complete this settlement. He was also required to pay for the mortgage and household expenses for the home where the wife and children lived until the settlement was complete.
However, by 2024, the man started missing payments. This caused the wife to legally ask for changes to the payment scheme.
The court said no to her but required the man to give assurances that he would follow the payment schedule that had originally been set.
The wife grew even more concerned when her husband refinanced one of their properties with a much larger loan. He also withdrew S$18.3 million drawn down from the financing loan and transferred S$18.2 million of it to his company.
While he said that this amount was a payment for a debt of S$15.9 million to the company, the court said this did not explain the excess S$2.2 million that had come in, and High Court Judge Choo Han Teck called into question the transparency of the transactions, characterising it “an unusual and unexplained movement of funds.”
The wife also expressed concerns about her ex-husband’s reported plan to move to Dubai, especially after he had S$300,000 in overdue payments.
In September of last year, she therefore applied for a domestic Mareva injunction that would restrain him from transactions involving assets while there are existing legal obligations, as these transactions could frustrate the enforcement of a settlement or consent order.
By the following month, an order was issued limiting dealings concerning the property in question.
The man, however, said he had no plans of relocating to Dubai.
The court granted the woman’s application for the Mareva injunction, with Justice Choo saying that it was needed based on the man’s prior behaviour.
On February 5, the husband was restrained by the court from disposing of his assets worth the S$7.56 million he still owes his wife.
Within 30 days, the man needs to place this amount with his lawyers, who will hold it in trust and make the payments to his wife each month until the obligation from their divorce settlement is completed in June 2027. /TISG
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