Granddaughters of Malaysia’s late ‘Casino King’ Lim Goh Tong take $410M inheritance dispute to court

The sisters, 48-year-old Chan T’shiao Li and 45-year-old Kimberley Chan T’shiao Min, appeared at the High Court in Malaysia on Monday as a trial began over their claim to a share of assets left by Lim Siew Kim, their mother and the late tycoon’s youngest daughter, who died in July 2022.

Also in court was their brother, Marcus Chan Jau Chwen, who was one of four defendants named in the suit alongside lawyers Malcolm Fernandez and Datuk Low Beng Choo, and another individual named Chan Mei Yee, as reported by the New Straits Times.

In their suit, the sisters alleged fraud in the execution of Siew Kim’s will, which was prepared on April 28, 2022, and are asking the court to nullify it.

They are also demanding that Fernandez and Mei Yee return all the title documents to their mother’s immovable properties that they currently hold, according to The Sun.

The sisters contend that their mother suffered from stage 4 ovarian cancer before her death and lacked the necessary mental and legal capacity to execute a valid will.

In 2023, they also discovered two earlier wills that their mother left behind. Those documents were dated Nov. 2, 2021, and April 11, 2022, while the final version drafted by Low was signed on April 28, 2022.

At the Monday trial, Low confirmed that Siew Kim had signed the final will from her bed at a private hospital.

Her testimony was promptly contested by the plaintiffs, who sought to remove parts of the oral and documentary evidence that they deemed to be hearsay as it involved statements from the deceased.

The court has scheduled March 2 for a ruling on the application.

The final will left T’shiao Li with RM900,000 and Kimberley with RM100,000, which they say stood in sharp contrast to what their brother and other beneficiaries received.

Marcus, meanwhile, inherited properties, shares in a company, the contents of all safe deposit boxes and 30% of Siew Kim’s residuary estate.

Another sister, Cressa Chan T’shiao Yunn, received RM10 million, a property and a stake in a company while her daughter Jasmine was granted RM50,000 per month.

More than 70% of the residuary estate was allocated to an entity known as the Dikim Foundation. T’shiao Li and Kimberley have raised concerns about the foundation, questioning its legitimacy and true purpose.

An earlier report by The Edge Malaysia said Low was subsequently appointed a director of the Dikim Foundation in 2023.

Goh Tong was one of Malaysia’s most prominent tycoons. He moved to Malaysia from China in the 1930s with neither money nor formal education and went on to amass a fortune by building the Genting gaming empire.

By the time of his death in October 2007, he was ranked the country’s third richest individual with a net worth estimated at US$4.3 billion. Forbes dubbed him Malaysia’s “Casino King.”

In the years that followed, however, his legacy was overshadowed by a highly publicized inheritance dispute that stretched on for more than a decade between the children of his late eldest son, Lim Tee Keong, and their uncles, Lim Kok Thay and Lim Chee Wah, according to Free Malaysia Today.

Media reports in 2019 indicated that the parties involved had reached a global settlement covering all claims and counterclaims, though no public announcement was made.

Siew Kim had also previously filed a suit against her brother Kok Thay for shares in Genting.