O.K. Lim's daughter on trial for instructing IT staff to delete data from Hin Leong's servers

She is charged with intending to obstruct the course of justice by hindering probe into company

- Selina Lum Senior Law Correspondent

Lim Huey Ching, the daughter of former oil tycoon Lim Oon Kuin, went on trial in the State Courts on Oct 6 for instructing IT staff at Hin Leong Trading to delete data from the computer servers of the now-collapsed company.

The alleged instructions by Lim, 58, were given on April 13, 2020 - the day before PwC, Hin Leong’s newly appointed financial adviser, was to carry out a process to duplicate the information stored on the servers.

After a single charge accusing her of intending to obstruct the course of justice was read to her, Lim said softly: “I didn’t do it.”

Lim, her father and brother Evan Lim Chee Meng were directors of Hin Leong, which ran into serious financial difficulties in early 2020.

The company filed for insolvency protection on April 17, 2020.

Lim Oon Kuin, better known as O.K. Lim, was sentenced to 171/2 years’ jail in November 2024 for two counts of cheating and one count of forgery in what prosecutors described as “one of the most serious cases of trade financing fraud that has ever been prosecuted in Singapore”.

He was found to have duped HSBC into disbursing US$111.6 million (S$144.2 million) to Hin Leong based on two fabricated oil sale contracts. He also instructed a former employee to forge documents for one of the bogus contracts.

The 82-year-old has appealed against his conviction and sentence.