Singapore prosecutors concluded their 54-day criminal case against Hyflux founder Olivia Lum and five others over alleged failures to disclose material information about the Tuaspring water-and-power project. Hyflux's collapse left about 34,000 investors with losses of roughly $900 million, and the defence will now indicate whether to argue there is no case to answer.
The prosecution closed its case on September 29, 2026, after 59 weeks of proceedings before Principal District Judge Toh Han Li, calling 22 witnesses including former Hyflux staff involved in preparing corporate announcements and bankers who negotiated Tuaspring's financing. Led by Deputy Chief Prosecutor Christopher Ong, the prosecution alleged that Olivia Lum — determined to win the Tuaspring integrated water and power project in 2011 — intentionally failed to disclose material information, fearing it would deter investors. At the heart of the case: the project's profitability hinged on electricity sales, exposing Hyflux to volatile power prices, a fact investors were allegedly never told.
The Tuaspring story, as laid out in court, was one of ambition outrunning disclosure. Hyflux won the tender with the lowest bid, offering to sell water to national water agency PUB at 45 cents per cubic metre in the first year — undercutting rivals by at least 27 per cent. But that tariff meant the desalination plant would operate at a loss on water alone. The plan was for the co-located power plant to supply the desalination facility while selling the vast majority of its electricity to the national grid — making Hyflux, a water company with no power-generation experience, effectively an electricity trader. The prosecution alleged the company struggled to get bank loans and turned to retail investors instead, with DBS floating the idea of preference-share fundraising.
Six defendants face charges. The prosecution proceeded on 11 charges: two each against Olivia Lum and four former independent directors — Teo Kiang Kok, Gay Chee Cheong, Christopher Murugasu and Lee Joo Hai — relating to consenting to Hyflux's omission of information required under SGX listing rules, and one against former chief financial officer Cho Wee Peng for conniving in the omission. Four other Companies Act charges against Olivia Lum were stood down. On October 21, the defence — led by Senior Counsel Davinder Singh — will indicate whether to submit that there is no case to answer.
The human cost is what made Hyflux a national scandal. Placed under judicial management in November 2020 and wound up in 2021, its collapse wiped out about 34,000 holders of perpetual securities and preference shares — many of them retirees who had believed they were investing in a stable water utility — to the tune of roughly $900 million. Whatever the court decides, the case has already become the textbook example of disclosure failure in Singapore corporate history.