Singapore: OK Lim’s grandson fails to keep Tanglin condo out of aunt’s bankruptcy estate

Denzel Pak Juin Tern, grandson of former oil tycoon Lim Oon Kuin, has failed in a legal bid to keep a freehold condominium in Tanglin out of his aunt Lim Huey Ching’s bankruptcy estate, The Straits Times reported on Friday (6 November). 

The property, located at Chelsea Gardens in Walshe Road, is registered solely in Huey Ching’s name and is valued at more than SGD 4.5 million.

Pak sued the private trustees of Huey Ching’s bankruptcy estate, alleging that the property was held on trust for his late mother, Lim Huey Yih, Huey Ching’s sister, under an alleged oral agreement made in 2000 involving their father, OK Lim. He sought to have the property administered as part of his mother’s estate instead of Huey Ching’s bankruptcy estate.

According to the report, the High Court found that the evidence from OK Lim and Huey Ching on the alleged trust agreement that Huey Yih would take the beneficial ownership of the property “consisted of bare and unverifiable assertions that were unsupported by any contemporaneous records”.

The High Court found that the documentary evidence indicated Huey Ching held both the legal and beneficial interest in the property. She had signed the sale and purchase agreement, taken out the mortgage in her name and continued paying the property’s management fees and property taxes.

The High Court concluded that the lawsuit was a “last-ditch attempt to place the property beyond the reach of Huey Ching’s creditors”.

The case marks another failed attempt by a member of the Lim family to shield assets from creditors. 

In 2025, OK Lim’s granddaughter Michelle Lim failed in a separate bid to exclude three insurance policies worth more than SGD 500,000 from her father Lim Chee Meng’s bankruptcy estate.

Related: Hin Leong Founder’s granddaughter fails to block creditor access to insurance policies

Photo credit: Manifold Times
Published: 10 November, 2026