The lawyers of Hin Leong Trading (Pte) Ltd founder Lim Oon Kuin and his daughter Lim Huey Ching on Thursday (8 February) accused former personal assistant Serene Seng of exaggerating and lying in her testimony in a civil trial, according to The Business Times.

Davinder Singh Chambers represented Lim Oon Kuin, also known as OK Lim, and a team from Advocatus Law represented his daughter.

According to the report, Seng was among those called to the stand as witnesses in the civil trial in which PwC liquidators and HSBC are suing Lim, his two children and Seng for a total of USD 3.5 billion (SGD 4.7 billion). The liquidators have filed a separate case from HSBC, but the hearings are being conducted jointly in the High Court.

Davinder Singh questioned Seng through a series of excerpts from former Hin Leong employees. One of them was that the former employees said in their testimonies that they “did not have any work dealings” with OK Lim and met him only “probably occasionally”. However, Seng had said that OK Lim had always been involved in the operations of the group and made all its operational decisions. 

Seng disagreed when Singh suggested that she had “exaggerated” her evidence about OK Lim supervising everyone in an attempt to implicate him after she was unable to comment on the statements from the other employees.

Christopher Anand Daniel of Advocatus Law, lawyer of OK Lim’s daughter Lim Huey Ching, focused on the differences between Seng’s affidavits filed during the criminal proceedings and her statement to PwC recorded on 30 September, 2020. 

Daniel said Seng had given “quite graphic evidence” during the criminal proceedings of how Lim Huey Ching had flagged a problem with the payment for a contract to sell oil to China Aviation Oil (Singapore) – with a slew of intricate details. But her statement to PwC regarding this conversation was missing the details. 

The civil trial resumes on 13 February, when lawyers representing the liquidators will resume calling their witnesses to the stand.  

An extensive coverage by Singapore bunkering publication Manifold Times regarding the fall of Hin Leong can be found below:

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Photo credit: Manifold Times
Published: 13 February, 2024