In Singapore: The former oil tycoon who swindled HSBC out of $112 million

Lim Oon Kuin, better known as OK Lim, was convicted in May of one of the most serious financial frauds in the Southeast Asian city-state of Singapore. His sentence is due to be pronounced by a judge at 2:30 p.m. (06:30 GMT). His company, Hin Leong Trading, was among Asia's largest oil trading companies until its sudden collapse in 2020.

The Covid pandemic and the disruption it brought to the black gold market precipitated the collapse of Hin Leong Trading, revealing its financial woes as Mr Lim sought help from the courts to protect himself of its creditors. In a sworn statement seen by AFP in 2020, he admitted that his company had “in truth (…) not made a profit in recent years”, after having nevertheless published a positive balance sheet in 2019.

He also admitted to having concealed $800 million in losses and that his company owed nearly $4 billion to banks. OK Lim took responsibility for ordering Hin Leong Trading's deficits not to be published in its accounts.

Prosecutors have requested 20 years in prison for the octogenarian, arguing that this is “one of the most serious cases of financial fraud ever prosecuted in Singapore”. The businessman's defense sought to obtain a seven-year prison sentence by downplaying the facts, as well as citing his age and poor health. Lim Oon Kuin had been indicted on 130 counts involving hundreds of millions of dollars, but prosecutors only charged three: two for defrauding the HSBC bank and a third for encouraging an official of Hin Leong Trading to falsify documents.

According to the prosecution, Mr Lim misled HSBC by assuring it that he was in contract negotiations with two companies, leading the bank to pay him nearly $112 million. These negotiations were in fact only “pure inventions, fabricated under the direction of the accused”, said the prosecutors, estimating that Lim Oon Kuin's misdeeds had “tarnished the reputation of the hub of the oil trade in Asia hard won by Singapore.

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