Legal

Argus Media: Singapore’s Hin Leong founder charged with forgery

Lim has been charged with instigating a Hin Leong employee to forge a document that was allegedly used to secure more than $56 million in financing, it said.

Published

6 years ago

August 17, 2020

Admin

Kevin Foster of global energy and commodity price reporting agency Argus Media on Thursday (6 August) published an article outlining the details in Lim Oon Kuin, founder of Hin Leong Trading’s criminal charges following the company’s financial collapse:

The founder of Singapore’s Hin Leong Trading, Lim Oon Kuin, has been charged with abetting forgery, in the first criminal case to emerge from the collapse of the oil trading company earlier this year.

Lim has been charged with instigating a Hin Leong employee to forge a document stating that the company had transferred more than 1mn bl of gasoil to China’s state-controlled China Aviation Oil (CAO), the Singapore Police Force (SPF) said today. This document — issued by Hin Leong’s storage arm Universal Terminals — was allegedly used to secure more than $56mn in trade financing from an unnamed financial institution.

The charge, which carries a prison term of up to 10 years, resulted from an investigation by Singapore’s Commercial Affairs Department into Hin Leong. Lim is being investigated for other alleged offences, the SPF said.

Lim, known commonly as OK Lim, founded Hin Leong in 1963 and built the company into one of Asia-Pacific’s largest independent oil trading firms with revenues of more than $14bn/yr.

Hin Leong sought court protection in mid-April because of “severe financial difficulties” caused by falling oil prices, moves by bank lenders to reduce their exposure to the commodity financing industry and a drop in demand for oil and bunkers because of Covid-19. Hin Leong has liabilities of $3.5bn and assets of about $257mn, court filings show.

Allegations of fraudulent activity related to cargo financing at Hin Leong and two other Singapore companies, Hontop and Zenrock Commodities Trading, have sparked a crisis in confidence in the trading sector and caused some financial institutions to cut lending. Dutch bank ABN Amro, which had one of the largest exposures to Hin Leong, said this week it would withdraw entirely from commodities and trade financing.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Hin Leong’s court-appointed judicial manager, said in a June court filing that it had found evidence suggesting the company overstated the quantity of inventories on vessels when obtaining inventory financing, securing financing by pledging cargoes that it did not own or did not exist.

Evidence suggests Hin Leong ran up derivatives trading losses of around $808mn over the past 10 years, which it concealed by overstating derivatives gains by as much as $2.1bn in its financial statements. Hin Leong “fabricated documents on a massive scale” to facilitate this, including bank statements, bills of lading and swap trade documents, PwC said.

CAO is China’s sole jet fuel importer and trades other oil products. There is no indication that it, or other counterparties involved in the allegedly questionable trades at Hin Leong, were party to any wrongdoing.

Photo credit and source: Argus Media
Published: 17 August 2020

Legal

Singapore police arrest eight over alleged illegal MGO transaction off Tuas

SPF says preliminary investigations found that crew members of a Singapore-registered tugboat misappropriated MGO worth about SGD 10,570 without their company’s knowledge and sold it illegally.

Published

3 days ago

August 14, 2026

Admin

Singapore police arrest eight over alleged illegal MGO transaction off Tuas

The Singapore Police Force (SPF) on Thursday (13 August) said it has arrested eight men, aged between 25 and 54, for their suspected involvement in an illegal transaction of Marine Gas Oil (MGO).

On 13 August 2026 at about 1.05am, officers from the Police Coast Guard (PCG) conducted a check on a Singapore-registered tugboat in the waters off Tuas and discovered that eight crew members were possibly involved in the illegal transaction of MGO.

“Preliminary investigations revealed that the crew members of the tugboats misappropriated MGO valued at about SGD 10,570 (USD 8,258), without their company’s knowledge,” SPF said in a statement.

“The MGO was sold illegally for their personal financial gain.”

The eight crew members will be charged in court on 14 August 2026 with the offence of theft by servant of property in possession of master under Section 381 of the Penal Code 1871 If convicted, they shall be punished with an imprisonment term that may extend to seven years and shall also be liable to fine.

“The Police take a serious view of illegal transaction of MGO in Singapore Territorial Waters and will continue to conduct enforcement and security checks to prevent, deter and detect such illicit activities in Singapore waters,” SPF added.

Photo credit: Singapore Police Force
Published: 14 August, 2026

Winding up

Singapore: Liquidators of East Marine Pte Ltd issues notice of annual meeting

Annual meeting of the company and its creditors will be held at 8 Wilkie Road, #03-08 Wilkie Edge, Singapore 228095 via audio-visual conference on 20 August at 11am.

Published

5 days ago

August 12, 2026

Admin

A notice of annual meeting was issued by liquidators of East Marine Pte Ltd, which is in creditor’s voluntary liquidation, on the Government Gazette on Friday (7 August).

According to the notice, the annual meeting of the company and its creditors will be held at 8 Wilkie Road, #03-08 Wilkie Edge, Singapore 228095 via audio-visual conference on 20 August at 11am.

The purpose of the meeting is to have an account laid before the meeting showing the acts and dealings of the liquidators and the conduct of the winding up in the preceding year.

The following are the details of the liquidators:

Ng Kian Kiat
Yap Hui Li
Liquidators
c/o 8 Wilkie Road
#03-08 Wilkie Edge
Singapore 228095

Photo credit: steve pb from Pixabay
Published: 12 August, 2026

Winding up

Singapore: Annual and final meetings to be held for Asia-Pacific Shipyard Pte Ltd

Annual meeting and the final meeting of the company and its creditors will be held at 8 Wilkie Road, #03-08 Wilkie Edge, Singapore 228095 via audio-visual conference on 9 September.

Published

5 days ago

August 12, 2026

Admin

A notice of annual meeting and final meeting was issued by liquidators of Asia-Pacific Shipyard Pte Ltd, which is in creditor’s voluntary liquidation, on the Government Gazette on Friday (7 August).

According to the notice, the annual meeting and the final meeting of the company and its creditors will be held at 8 Wilkie Road, #03-08 Wilkie Edge, Singapore 228095 via audio-visual conference on 9 September.

The annual meeting will be held at 2pm while the final meeting will be held at 3pm.

The purpose of the meeting is to have an account laid before the meeting showing the acts and dealings of the liquidators and the conduct of the winding up in the preceding year and the manner in which the winding up has been conducted and the property of the company has been disposed of and hearing any explanation that may be given by the liquidators.

The following are the details of the liquidators:

Ng Kian Kiat
Yap Hui Li
Liquidators
c/o 8 Wilkie Road
#03-08 Wilkie Edge
Singapore 228095

Photo credit: Drew Beamer
Published: 12 August, 2026