(Bloomberg) -- Singapore’s High Court approved former oil tycoon Lim Oon Kuin’s agreements to pay $3.59 billion to the liquidators of his company and creditor HSBC Holdings Plc, ending the multiyear civil cases against him and his family.
The Lims didn’t admit liability and will pay the sum with interest and costs in the consent judgments agreed in court proceedings on Monday.
Bloomberg News earlier reported the planned agreements with the liquidators of Lim’s oil empire Hin Leong Trading Pte. which collapsed in 2020. HSBC had the most exposure at $600 million among its lenders, based on estimates in previous court filings.
The twist of events is an ignominious end to the elder Lim’s trading career. He had grown Hin Leong, which he founded in 1973, into the finance hub’s once-largest independent oil trader with interests spanning bunkering to storage businesses.
Lim’s legal troubles are not over. He is due to be sentenced at a later date after being convicted in a separate criminal trial for offenses related to cheating and forgery.
Singapore’s High Court approved a request to freeze as much as $3.5 billion of assets worldwide belonging to Lim and his family in May 2021. The Lims have been raising money also by selling assets including property and business holdings in recent years.
--With assistance from Alfred Cang and Chanyaporn Chanjaroen.
(Updates with court approval of the agreement in first two paragraphs.)
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