Hin Leong founder OK Lim jailed for cheating & forgery

The founder of now-defunct commodity trading firm Hin Leong Trading has been sentenced to 17.5 years in prison.

82-year-old oil tycoon Lim Oon Kuin, better known as OK Lim, had earlier this year been convicted of two cheating charges and one count of instigating forgery for the purpose of cheating, reported The Straits Times (ST).

Prosecution called for OK Lim to be jailed for up to 20 years

Lim appeared at the State Courts on Monday (18 Nov) in a wheelchair as he had done during his 62-day trial.

The prosecution had last month asked for a maximum sentence of 20 years as he had “tarnished Singapore’s hard-earned reputation as Asia’s leading oil trading hub”.

Deputy Chief Prosecutor Christopher Ong said the cheating charges are “examples of the worst possible offences of cheating”. They thus warranted 10 years’ jail per charge.

The forgery charge, additionally, warrants nine years’ jail, the prosecution added.

Lim’s lawyers, however, asked for seven years’ jail.

Lim’s offences involved a ‘staggeringly large’ sum of money: Judge

Judge Toh Han Li noted that Lim’s offences involved a “staggeringly large” sum of money compared with other cheating cases.

He thus felt that a deterrent sentence was warranted “to prevent offences from pervading Singapore’s financial ecosystem, which may lead to banks imposing stricter rules of compliance or withdrawing their trade financing services entirely”.

The judge also said that Lim’s offences “would have the potential to impact the bunkering and oil trading sector as Hin Leong was one of the largest players in the industry”.

OK Lim jailed in accordance with criminality of offences

Thus, Lim was sentenced to 17.5 years’ jail on Monday, with the judge ruling that the aggregate sentence “accords with the criminality of (Lim’s) offences and is not crushing”.

However, the judge cut his sentence by one year on account of his old age, considering “the long aggregate sentence to be imposed”.

But he also considered the fact that Lim was still able to commit the offences at the age of 78.

No further sentence reduction was given on account of Lim’s medical conditions as the judge opined that Singapore Prisons Service has the capability to address them “to an acceptable standard, even if it may not be the best medical standard”.

Lim’s lawyer, Senior Counsel Davinder Singh, said he will appeal against the sentence. He is now out on bail of S$4 million.

Lim had deceived HSBC into disbursing S$150M in credit

Lim, who founded Hin Leong in 1963, was found to have deceived HSBC Bank into disbursing a total of USS111.7 million (S$150 million) in credit to the company.

He did this by fabricating two transactions to sell oil to two companies.

The court found that Lim had directed his employees to forge documents for the two bogus transactions.

HSBC ended up with a total outstanding loss of US$85 million (S$114 million).

Lim originally faced more than 100 charges in relation to the case.

Lim family filing for bankruptcy

In a separate civil trial, his family agreed to pay US$3.5 billion (S$4.5 billion) to the liquidators of Hin Leong, which is now defunct.

But they do not have enough assets to pay the amount and will be filing for bankruptcy.

The family has already put up a number of properties in Singapore up for sale, including Good Class Bungalows (GCBs) in Second Avenue, Third Avenue and Tanglin Hill.

His wife also recently put up for sale her GCB in Queen Astrid Park.

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Featured image adapted from Lianhe Zaobao and MS News.