The following is a letter from one of our readers, C Sumi.
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As a citizen working in the City, I was dumbstruck when I read about the GIC’s latest management changes.
In particular, the appointment of one Lim Kee Chong as President (Americas), in addition to his current role of deputy group chief investment officer, is simply outrageous. This is an individual who had a civil penalty enforced against him by the regulator, for insider trading. Subsequently he had his membership in the CFA Institute revoked because of it.
(https://www.cfainstitute.org/
I profess I’m not familiar at all with what the roles and responsibilities of President (Americas) of the GIC are, but surely it would involve representing the organisation, and therefore the country, on many occasions. How embarrassing it must be, when in their research our foreign friends find out about his chequered past. People familiar with the case at the time say that Lim was caught telling his subordinates about the insider information on the phone, and told them they must be discreet in trading the related securities. People who have worked with Lim also say what he did was totally in character, which leads one to conclude that he is a person of questionable moral values.
It was terrible enough when the GIC promoted Lim to deputy group CIO. One can only imagine that is for his supposed investment acumen. However, company insiders say that he was the lead officer in charge of the GIC’s disastrous investment in UBS in late 2007, which have since degenerated into billions of dollars lost for the GIC and the nation.
Is there such a dearth of talent within the GIC that it had to promote Lim to two such important roles?