Former employee of failed oil trader Hin Leong admits she lied to CAD
THE defence counsel of Singapore’s former oil tycoon Lim Oon Kuin accused the prosecution’s third witness – a former long-time employee of Hin Leong Trading (HLT) – that she “would say anything” to safeguard her interest, on the ninth day of the trial on cheating and forgery charges against Lim.
“I put it to you that you would say anything, even if it’s a lie, on the stand... so long as it is in your interest,” said Senior Counsel Davinder Singh of Davinder Singh Chambers, who represents Lim, during his cross examination of Serene Seng at the State Court on Wednesday (Apr 26).
“I disagree,” replied Seng, whose last position at Hin Leong was manager of corporate affairs. She was previously also Lim’s personal assistant.
Seng, 61, worked at HLT for nearly three decades and retired three years ago. She worked closely with Lim – better known as OK Lim – “almost on a daily basis” for more than two decades.
She is the prosecution’s first witness from HLT in the trial that began on Apr 11. The first two witnesses were employees of HSBC – Hin Leong’s largest creditor.
Davinder suggested this after Seng amended her earlier remarks from the first day of her testimony during the examination-in-chief by deputy public prosecutor Christopher Ong.
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Seng testified that in relation to the Unipec Singapore discounting request, Lim had called her into his office one day and informed her that he was about to close a deal with Unipec, but he wanted to discount the receivables first. She had referred to it as “not a genuine deal at the time when it was discounted because the contract had not been closed at all”.
Seng had also said earlier that the payments for the sale of oil contracts would “always” be made in 30 days. But on Wednesday, when pressed by Singh, she said that was the case “usually in general” and in “majority of the deals”.
“I realise... this word “always” means a hundred per cent. But actually that is not true. I meant to say majority of the deals closed in 30 days,” she explained.
Following this, Singh referred to two contracts, one which stipulated that payment be made within 45 days and the other, 60 days.
“You gave the court the impression (earlier) that what Lim said to you about 45 days was very unusual because it was always 30 days.
“And so in your mind, you thought Lim was giving himself 15 days to close the deal. Then when I started to cross examine you, you said Lim actually told you he would close the deal in 15 days. Which is the truth? “ he remarked.
The Unipec transaction is one of two transactions that are central to the three charges – two involve cheating and one, forgery – that Singapore prosecutors have proceeded on, out of a total of 130 charges that they have levelled against Lim. The other involves a contract for the sale of oil to China Aviation Oil (CAO).
Prosecutors have accused Lim of cheating HSBC by representing to the bank – through Hin Leong’s employees – that the company had entered into these two contracts with CAO and Unipec Singapore which they claim were “complete fabrications”. As a result of these “deceptions”, prosecutors claim that HSBC was dishonestly induced into disbursing some US$112 million to Hin Leong.
Seng, however, agreed with Singh’s remarks, that given the inconsistencies with her testimony in court over the four days as witness and her earlier statements to the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) in 2020, that she had lied to the CAD on some instances.
Then, during the CAD interview and as per the statement that was taken down, parts of which were read in court, she had informed the investigating officer that she had “flipped over the ‘S’” in a signature she had used to sign on a bill of lading (BL) as a supporting document for the Unipec discounting request.
During her court testimony, however, Seng said that she used the name “Jane” to sign off on the document.
The BL was purported to be issued by Ocean Tankers – a sister company of HLT and once one of Asia’s largest vessel operators which also ran into trouble. Seng claimed that when she told Lim that she would not be able to sign for Ocean Tankers as she was not an employee of the company, Lim told her to use another signature.
Singh read her statement to the CAD on the matter. In the statement, Seng claimed that when Lim asked her to use a different signature, he told her not to worry as he is the “big boss”.
“So, your evidence is that OK Lim had to remind you that he is the big boss?,” asked Singh.
She replied: “Mr Lim always tells everybody that he is the boss of the whole group.”
“I put it to you that you would say anything to create all sorts of conversations purely to look after yourself,” he said.
“I disagree,” Seng replied.
On the Unipec transaction, Singh asked: “Wasn’t your position with CAD that you did not have anything to do with the (Unipec) transaction?”
“Yes, at that time”, replied Seng. “I was lying to CAD. I wasn’t able to tell the truth,” answered Seng, who seemed visibly rattled as Singh pressed on sternly with his questions. She added that she did so to protect her children.
“How would it protect your children when it could expose you to...lying to CAD?” asked Singh.
“...at that time, as a lay person, I really didn’t know what to do. I just did what I thought was best for my children,” she answered.
“I put it to you that your entire story about protecting the children was a farce and a fiction because your very act of lying would have exposed you. Agree?” Singh asked to which Seng said she disagreed.
“And I put it to you that when questions to which you know the answer to are put to you, you run down the clock, pretend to look at documents, find a way to read various paragraphs to come up with some contrived answer. That’s what you have been doing these past few days. Agree?” Singh said.
“I disagree,” Seng replied.
The hearing before Judge Toh Han Li continues, and will take place over several dates till Jul 20.
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