Kitchen Culture's ex-CEO claims defamation by directors
KITCHEN Culture's former chief executive Lim Wee Li has sent letters to two of the company's independent directors - William Teo and Ang Lian Kiat - alleging they made "defamatory statements" in a regulatory filing released by the company on Sunday.
The two letters of demand, seen by The Business Times (BT), claimed that portions of their statements in Kitchen Culture's response to Singapore Exchange's (SGX) notice of compliance were "defamatory, untrue and have impugned (Mr Lim's) character, credit, and integrity".
Kitchen Culture, which is in the business of supplying kitchen equipment, had earlier dismissed Mr Lim over "grave misconduct" affecting the company's business. The dismissal, it said, was in response to findings in an interim report from Baker Tilly Consultancy, which had uncovered potential breaches by officers and employees of the company. Certain failures of Mr Lim were also identified, the company said.
Mr Lim is disputing the characterisations of his actions lacking in "important context" and "incomplete".
For one thing, he disagreed with the board in saying that a S$1.2 million loan he gave to a third party was "without business justification". Mr Lim said the loan was justified as it provided "interest income for the company" in light of severe revenue impact from the pandemic.
He added that in the Baker Tilly report, the business justification was classified as "not documented", rather than "not justified".
Regarding a S$700,000 cash transfer from Kitchen Culture to himself, Mr Lim said this was a repayment of an interest-free loan that he extended to the company previously. He claimed this was incorrectly recorded in Kitchen Culture's general ledger as a loan to him.
Kitchen Culture also said three motor vehicles were purchased without board approval and business justification. But Mr Lim said two of the vehicles - a Mercedes Benz and a BMW X6 M - were bought "for the purposes of courting potential investors for (Kitchen Culture's) fundraising exercises".
Also, the purchase of the Mercedes Benz was initiated by a former executive director of the company Loy Soo Toon.
The purchase of the third vehicle, an Audi A8L, did not take place because "the ownership title could not be transferred to the company", according to Mr Lim. "Any monies expended by the company in relation to that transaction was fully refunded."
Finally, Mr Lim argued that some loan repayments he made on behalf of the company to private lenders were wrongly described as posing "a risk of misuse of the company's funds".
Two of the three private lenders - Lim Kian Soon and Lim Hon Sean - have signed documents to acknowledge the repayment of their loans to Kitchen Culture, he said. He added that he will also be able to "procure an acknowledgement" from the third private lender, Ong Tiong Seng Tony.
Mr Lim has demanded a response from Mr Teo and Mr Ang within three days of receipt of his letters, dated Aug 2.
BT has reached out to Kitchen Culture for comment.
Shares of Catalist-listed Kitchen Culture last traded at S$0.08 on July 7.
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