Singaporean oil tycoon Lim Oon Kuin, known as “OK Lim,” has been sentenced to 17.5 years in jail for cheating HSBC Holdings Plc and instigating forgery, Bloomberg reports.
The 82-year-old founder of collapsed commodity trading giant Hin Leong Trading was convicted earlier this year on three charges related to a massive fraud totaling nearly $112 million. Judge Toh Han Li of the State Courts described the sentence as a necessary deterrent.
The case, involving over 100 initial charges, sent shockwaves through Singapore’s commodity trading sector and resulted in significant losses for banks. Hin Leong, once one of Asia’s largest suppliers of diesel and marine fuel, imploded amidst a series of scandals that also involved the collapses of Noble Group Ltd. and Agritrade International Pte.
In a related civil settlement reached in September, Lim and his children agreed to pay $3.6 billion to Hin Leong’s liquidators and creditor HSBC, and to file for bankruptcy.
