OK Lim, founder of failed oil trader Hin Leong, was taken into custody to serve his 13.5-year jail sentence after he surrendered at a hospital in Singapore.
Lim Oon Kuin, widely known as OK Lim, was supposed to surrender at the State Courts for his sentence on Wednesday before his bail was extended until 3 p.m. on Thursday.
Since the 84-year-old was still not discharged from the hospital by 12 p.m. on Thursday, he was required to surrender at the hospital instead. He has since been taken into custody, as reported by Channel News Asia.
The Straits Times earlier reported that he was hospitalized just days before the start of his sentence and subsequently filed an application to delay it, which was granted.
Singapore’s former oil tycoon Lim Oon Kuin arrives to be sentenced at the State Court in Singapore on Nov. 18, 2024. Photo by AFP |
Lim was convicted in November 2024 on two counts of cheating and one count of abetting forgery after he was found to have deceived HSBC into disbursing US$111.6 million to Hin Leong on the basis of two fabricated oil sale contracts. He was also found to have instructed a former employee to forge documents linked to one of those contracts.
His sentence was initially 17.5 years in prison before it was reduced by four years after the High Court allowed his appeal in early March, The Business Times reported.
During the appeal, Justice Hoo Sheau Peng described the original sentence as “crushing,” even after considering the usual one-third remission.
While she rejected Lim’s plea for judicial mercy, she ruled that the sentencing judge had erred in accepting the prosecution’s claim that his actions had harmed public confidence in the oil industry. She also factored in the substantial restitution Lim made and his advanced age.
Established in 1973, Hin Leong was owned by Lim, his son Evan Lim and his daughter Lim Huey Ching.
The trio was declared bankrupt in December 2024 after reaching a settlement in two lawsuits filed by Hin Leong’s liquidators and HSBC against the family.
Lim’s daughter is still on trial for obstruction of justice. She is accused of directing an IT manager at Hin Leong Trading to ensure that deleted data on the company’s servers could not be recovered and that earlier back-ups were permanently destroyed. The prosecution is expected to close its case against her next week.
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