Judge: Why ex-IPP director Goh Jin Hian can't be granted relief from liability for losses

The High Court has found that Goh Jin Hian, a former director of insolvent marine fuel supplier Inter-Pacific Petroleum (IPP), is not entitled to relief from liability to pay US$146 million (S$196 million) plus interest in compensation for losses suffered by the firm.

- Grace Leong

This is due to “the egregiousness of his breaches of duty, chief among which was his ignorance as to IPP’s cargo trading business” – a “vehicle of fraud” that had “disastrous consequences” for the company – Justice Aedit Abdullah ruled in his 170-page grounds of decision issued on July 11.

Goh, the son of former prime minister Goh Chok Tong, served as a director of IPP from June 28, 2011, to August 2019.

His breach of duty “entailed an extent of carelessness or imprudence that struck at the very heart of his duty of skill, care and diligence”, said the judge.

In declining to grant Goh relief from liability, Justice Abdullah said: “The mere fact that Dr Goh had not been a perpetrator of the fraud did not mean that he was not responsible for its disastrous consequences on IPP.

“It was through his combination of misfeasance and nonfeasance, in failing to even be aware of IPP’s cargo trading business, that the fraudsters were able to use IPP’s cargo trading business as a vehicle of fraud in the first place.”

He ordered Goh to pay costs of $332,545 plus $94,301 in disbursements.

The judge’s grounds of decision came after Goh appealed the ruling in February that found him liable for breach of director’s duties and statutory duties and losses suffered by IPP.