Disgraced oil tycoon OK Lim and his two children declared bankrupt

SINGAPORE: A government gazette on Friday (Dec 27) showed that former oil tycoon Lim Oon Kuin, more popularly known as OK Lim, and two of his children have been declared bankrupt.

According to the gazette, Lim, along with Lim Huey Ching and Lim Chee Meng, had been issued a bankruptcy order on Dec 19. The 82-year-old Lim had founded Hin Leong Trading Pte, and his daughter and son are directors of the company.

In May, OK Lim was convicted of cheating the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) and forgery in a case involving at least S$150 million.

In September, he and his children agreed to pay S$4.76 billion to the court-appointed liquidators of the Hin Leong and to HSBC, the company’s biggest creditor, after the civil trial ended.

The family needed to shell out the amount, plus interest, dating back to April 2020, when their legal troubles first came to light.

The Lims, however, said that their funds were insufficient to pay the amount owed to the parties that had taken legal action against them. They also said at the time they would apply for bankruptcy.

While they agreed to pay Hin Leong’s creditors, they did not admit to the charges filed against them.

In November, Lim was slapped with a jail sentence of 17 and a half years. Following his sentencing, it was reported that he would file an appeal, and his lawyer, Senior Counsel Davinder Singh, said that his $4 million bail has also been extended.

The embattled tycoon’s legal woes came to the fore in 2020 after the pandemic caused oil markets to plunge.

By April of that year, he sought protection from creditors in court. Lim built his empire starting from a single-truck enterprise through the combination of high-risk gambles and hard work, but when oil prices plunged, the cracks in his manner of business began to show.

Documents showed that the firm owed almost $4 million, and Lim had hidden $800 million in losses over previous years.

He took responsibility for telling the company not to report the losses. The collapsed company has over 20 bank creditors, including HSBC, UOB, OCBC, and DBS.

HSBC sought a return of $85 million, a fraction of what it was owed. A few months later, the police said in a statement that Lim had been charged with abetment of forgery for cheating. Lim eventually faced more than 100 charges.

According to The Straits Times, prosecutors characterized Lim’s case as “one of the most serious cases of trade financing fraud that have ever been prosecuted in Singapore”. /TISG

Read also: Convicted Singapore oil tycoon OK Lim’s Tanglin Hill Mansion sold at S$4M discount amid SG’s luxury property market challenges