O.K. Lim’s daughter loses challenge to exclude evidence in ongoing trial

SINGAPORE – Lim Huey Ching, the daughter of former oil tycoon Lim Oon Kuin, on Aug 24 failed in her bid to exclude certain evidence in her ongoing trial for obstruction of justice.

Lim went on trial in October 2025 for instructing IT staff at Hin Leong Trading to delete data from the computer servers of the now-collapsed oil trading company.

The trial was brought to a stop after she filed an application to the High Court, contending that the district judge was wrong to have admitted as evidence legal advice from the company’s in-house counsel.

The advice stated, among other things, that the Lim family should come clean about financial irregularities.

She contended that the advice was protected by legal privilege, under which private talks between a lawyer and a client cannot be forcibly disclosed in court.

Lim Huey Ching, her father and brother Evan Lim were directors of Hin Leong, which was put into liquidation in 2021.

On Aug 24, High Court judge Hoo Sheau Peng rejected Lim Huey Ching’s contention that the in-house counsel was giving her personal advice.

The judge agreed with prosecutors that the advice was given to her in her capacity as a director of Hin Leong, and that the right to assert or waive legal privilege belonged solely to the company’s liquidators.

Hoo also agreed with prosecutors that the advice was admissible because the liquidators had provided a full and complete waiver over the advice for Lim’s trial.

The judge added that Lim’s filing of the application, known as a criminal revision, was not the appropriate recourse to challenge the trial judge’s decision.

Hoo said any error in the district judge’s decision to admit the evidence should be remedied by way of an appeal if Lim is ultimately convicted at the end of the trial.

Lim Oon Kuin, better known as O.K. Lim, is serving a jail term of 13½ years for what prosecutors described as “one of the most serious cases of trade financing fraud that has ever been prosecuted in Singapore”.

He was found guilty of cheating HSBC into disbursing US$111.6 million (S$143.65 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.

Lim Huey Ching is accused of obstructing the course of justice by instructing an IT manager to ensure that deleted items on Hin Leong’s servers are unrecoverable and that previous back-ups are permanently deleted.

The prosecution sought to admit as evidence communications between Lim and the company’s then in-house counsel.

This comprised verbal advice on April 10, 2020 to Lim Huey Ching, Evan Lim and a senior employee, and an e-mail on April 11, 2020 that was sent to Evan Lim and copied to her.

The e-mail highlighted certain irregularities in Hin Leong’s financials, and stated that “the family should come clean” and “seek the bank’s forgiveness”.

The in-house counsel testified he was advising the Lims to be transparent with the banks so that the banks would support the company’s restructuring.

The prosecution said the advice is relevant to show that Lim Huey Ching knew Hin Leong was facing probable civil proceedings or criminal investigations when she gave the instructions on April 13, 2020.

During the trial, Lim, who was represented by Christopher Anand Daniel, objected to the advice being admitted.

Following an ancillary hearing, the district judge found that the advice was admissible.

Lim Huey Ching filed the current application to the High Court after all the prosecution witnesses had testified. The trial was then paused, pending the resolution of the application.

The next scheduled court date is a pre-trial conference on Sept 28.

Selina Lum is senior law correspondent at The Straits Times.