OK Lim’s lawyer questions prosecution witness’ recollection of 2 key transactions in cheating, forgery charges

THE second day of the trial involving cheating and forgery charges against Singapore’s former oil tycoon Lim Oon Kuin of the fallen Hin Leong empire saw Lim’s defence counsel cast doubts on the prosecution’s first witness’ recollection of two key transactions related to the alleged offences.

“Can I suggest that you don’t have a very good recollection in relation to these transactions... as within a day you have already changed your evidence on what happened over a particular call,” said Senior Counsel Davinder Singh of Davinder Singh Chambers, who is representing Lim, on Wednesday (Apr 12). He said this in his cross-examination of the testimony provided by HSBC’s senior vice-president of commodity and structured trade finance in Singapore, Chua Pei Pei.

On Tuesday, during deputy public prosecutor Christopher Ong’s examination, Chua testified that there was a discussion over the phone on Mar 19, 2020, with an employee from Hin Leong Trading (HLT) on a transaction between the oil trader and China Aviation Oil (Singapore) Corporation (CAO). Specifically, the discussion was in relation to a financing facility offered to HLT where it could apply to HSBC to discount invoices for the sale of oil to its customers (in this instance, CAO), which is referred to as “discounting application”.