Legal

Argus Media: Singapore’s Hin Leong founder charged with forgery

Lim has been charged with instigating a Hin Leong employee to forge a document that was allegedly used to secure more than $56 million in financing, it said.

Published

6 years ago

August 17, 2020

Admin

Kevin Foster of global energy and commodity price reporting agency Argus Media on Thursday (6 August) published an article outlining the details in Lim Oon Kuin, founder of Hin Leong Trading’s criminal charges following the company’s financial collapse:

The founder of Singapore’s Hin Leong Trading, Lim Oon Kuin, has been charged with abetting forgery, in the first criminal case to emerge from the collapse of the oil trading company earlier this year.

Lim has been charged with instigating a Hin Leong employee to forge a document stating that the company had transferred more than 1mn bl of gasoil to China’s state-controlled China Aviation Oil (CAO), the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said today. This document — issued by Hin Leong’s storage arm Universal Terminals — was allegedly used to secure more than $56mn in trade financing from an unnamed financial institution.

The charge, which carries a prison term of up to 10 years, resulted from an investigation by Singapore’s Commercial Affairs Department into Hin Leong. Lim is being investigated for other alleged offences, the SPF said.

Lim, known commonly as OK Lim, founded Hin Leong in 1963 and built the company into one of Asia-Pacific’s largest independent oil trading firms with revenues of more than $14bn/yr.

Hin Leong sought court protection in mid-April because of “severe financial difficulties” caused by falling oil prices, moves by bank lenders to reduce their exposure to the commodity financing industry and a drop in demand for oil and bunkers because of Covid-19. Hin Leong has liabilities of $3.5bn and assets of about $257mn, court filings show.

Allegations of fraudulent activity related to cargo financing at Hin Leong and two other Singapore companies, Hontop and Zenrock Commodities Trading, have sparked a crisis in confidence in the trading sector and caused some financial institutions to cut lending. Dutch bank ABN Amro, which had one of the largest exposures to Hin Leong, said this week it would withdraw entirely from commodities and trade financing.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Hin Leong’s court-appointed judicial manager, said in a June court filing that it had found evidence suggesting the company overstated the quantity of inventories on vessels when obtaining inventory financing, securing financing by pledging cargoes that it did not own or did not exist.

Evidence suggests Hin Leong ran up derivatives trading losses of around $808mn over the past 10 years, which it concealed by overstating derivatives gains by as much as $2.1bn in its financial statements. Hin Leong “fabricated documents on a massive scale” to facilitate this, including bank statements, bills of lading and swap trade documents, PwC said.

CAO is China’s sole jet fuel importer and trades other oil products. There is no indication that it, or other counterparties involved in the allegedly questionable trades at Hin Leong, were party to any wrongdoing.

Photo credit and source: Argus Media
Published: 17 August 2020

Legal

Singapore withdraws remaining 127 charges against Hin Leong founder OK Lim

Lim Oon Kuin, also known as OK Lim, was issued a stern warning and a district court granted him a discharge amounting to an acquittal for these charges on 17 July.

Published

17 hours ago

July 21, 2026

Admin

Founder of collapsed oil trader Hin Leong Trading, Lim Oon Kuin, also known as OK Lim, has had the remaining 127 charges against him withdrawn, according to The Straits Times on Monday (20 July).

OK Lim was issued a stern warning and a district court granted him a discharge amounting to an acquittal for these charges, including those for cheating, on 17 July. The discharge means Lim cannot be prosecuted again for the same offences.

Lim, 84, is currently serving a 13½-year prison sentence after the High Court reduced his original 17½-year jail term in March 2026. He was convicted in 2024 on two cheating charges and one count of abetting forgery in a case prosecutors described as one of Singapore’s most serious trade finance frauds.

Lim was convicted in May 2024 of two charges of cheating the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) and one count of abetting forgery that proceeded to trial out of a total of 130 criminal charges.

He was first charged in court on 14 August 2020, and was subsequently handed further charges in court on 25 September 2020, 30 April 2021 and 24 June 2021 for his role in perpetuating fraud on various financial institutions.

A total of 130 charges were eventually brought against him for cheating and forgery-related offences.

Photo credit: Sora Shimazaki
Published: 21 July, 2026

Winding up

Singapore: Coastal Logistics Pte Ltd to be wound up voluntarily

Coastal Logistics was reportedly affiliated with troubled Singapore bunker player Coastal Oil (Singapore) Pte Ltd.

Published

17 hours ago

July 21, 2026

Admin

Several resolutions for Coastal Logistics Pte Ltd were made during an extraordinary general meeting held on 14 July, according to a notice in the Government Gazette on Friday (4 July).

The following resolutions were duly passed during the meeting:

As Special Resolution

That it has been proved to the satisfaction of the meeting that the Company cannot by reason of its liabilities continue its business and accordingly the Company be wound up voluntarily pursuant to Section 160(1)(b) of the Insolvency, Restructuring and Dissolution Act 2018 (No. 40 of 2018);

As Ordinary Resolutions

that Mr. Wong Pheng Cheong Martin and Ms. Koay May Yee, both care of FTI Consulting (Singapore) Pte Ltd, One Raffles Quay, #27-10 South Tower, Singapore 048583 be appointed as the joint and several Liquidators of the Company for the purpose of such winding up; and
that the Liquidators be at liberty to open, maintain and operate any bank account(s) or account(s) for monies received by them as Liquidators with such bank(s) as they deem fit; and
that a Committee of Inspection will not be formed.

Manifold Times previously reported Nicholas James Gronow, director of Heng Tong Fuels & Shipping and Coastal Logistics, filed statutory declarations for both companies stating the firms cannot continue their businesses due to liabilities.

Both companies were reportedly affiliated with troubled Singapore bunker player Coastal Oil (Singapore) Pte Ltd.

In 2019, several vessels owned by both firms entered the sale & purchase (S&P) market in Singapore.

Photo credit: Drew Beamer
Published: 21 July, 2026

Winding up

Singapore: Liquidator of Nan Shan Maritime Pte Ltd issues notice of dividend

Third interim dividend to admitted unsecured claims of Nan Shan Maritime is payable from 15 July, according to Government Gazette notice.

Published

6 days ago

July 16, 2026

Admin

A notice of dividend for Nan Shan Maritime Pte Ltd, which is currently in creditors’ voluntary liquidation, was published on the Government Gazette on Wednesday (15 July).

The following are the details of the notice:

Name of Company : Nan Shan Maritime (Pte.) Ltd.(In Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidation)
Unique Entity No. / Registration No. : 201701967H
Address of Registered Office : 10 Anson Road, #10-10, International Plaza, Singapore 079903
Amount per centum : 5.00 Per Centum of all admitted unsecured, claims
First and Final or Otherwise : Third Interim
When Payable : 15 July 2026
Where Payable : Entitlements will be made by way of cheque.

Photo credit: Drew Beamer
Published: 16 July, 2026