Sparks fly in Violet Oon trial over obligations to fund joint business

RAISED voices and fierce interjections marked the third day of the Violet Oon trial, as parties argued over the share of financial responsibility borne by each side in their joint food and beverage business.

Tay Yiming, Oon’s son and head of operations at Violet Oon Singapore, said under cross-examination that business partner and defendant Manoj Murjani had left his family “in the lurch”. This depiction centred on an injection of about S$650,000 in additional working capital provided during the Covid-19 pandemic to Violet Oon Singapore, the business in which Murjani and the restaurateur’s family each held a 50 per cent stake.

Tay said that Whatsapp exchanges during the pandemic showed Murjani, who is director of luxury-lifestyle company Group MMM, initially agreeing to provide S$300,000 to Violet Oon Singapore, matching a similar injection by the Oon family. But that money never materialised, Tay said, leaving the Oon family to eventually inject about S$650,000 in capital on their own.