The court heard on Monday that the administrators overseeing the estate of Goh Tong’s late daughter Lim Siew Kim had allegedly paid lawyers more than RM2 million (US$489,500) without approval.
A lawyer for Marcus said the payments included RM1.4 million and over RM800,000 allegedly made in 2024 despite an earlier court order requiring payments related to debts other than Siew Kim’s to be scrutinized by the court, the New Straits Times reported.
The lawyer argued that the court was required to consider and approve such payments before they were made, rather than just receiving a report from the administrators afterward.
He added that the threshold for removing the administrators was whether there was reasonable suspicion of misconduct or whether they were unfit to remain in the role.
Marcus, who is a beneficiary of the estate, had earlier applied to have the administrators removed, citing alleged misconduct and breaches of court orders, according to The Edge Malaysia.
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Marcus Chan Jau Chwen, son of the late Lim Siew Kim. Photo from Anglo-Eastern Plantations’ website |
The administrators, Satharuban Sivasubramaniam and Khoo Siew Kiat, were appointed by the court in November 2023 to oversee the estate pending a family dispute that followed a probate suit filed by two of Siew Kim’s daughters to challenge the validity of her will.
Marcus alleged that the estate funds were drained through improper payments and that some disbursements were made through individual bank accounts instead of the designated trust account.
He also accused the administrators of interfering in the management of companies linked to the estate and almost causing the estate to pay RM4.73 million in assessments on behalf of a firm called Prominview despite the obligation allegedly falling on a joint venture partner.
He further alleged that they lodged private caveats and conducted property valuations without having the authority to distribute or dispose of estate assets.
Marcus in January secured an ad interim injunction preventing the administrators from acting on behalf of the estate until the removal application is resolved.
Siew Kim was the youngest daughter of Goh Tong, who founded the Genting business empire and was Malaysia’s third-richest man at the time of his passing in October 2007, according to Forbes.
She died of cancer in July 2022 at age 73 and was survived by Marcus, who was entitled to 30% of her residuary estate, and three daughters, two of whom received just fractions of her estate.
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Malaysian rags-to-riches tycoon Lim Goh Tong at his office in Kuala Lumpur on Dec. 31, 2003. Photo by Reuters |
The two sisters, Chan T’Shiao Li and Kimberly Chan T’Shiao Miin, were the ones who filed the lawsuit seeking to have their mother’s will nullified.
They cited two earlier wills prepared within months of the final version that set out markedly different distributions of the estate, arguing that the final will did not reflect their mother’s true intentions or her sound judgment at the time.
Marcus is one of the plaintiffs named in the sisters’ suit, with the others being lawyer Low Beng Choo, who prepared the final will, and the estate’s executors and trustees Malcolm Fernandez and Chan Mei Yee.