Lim Oon Kuin, the 84-year-old founder of collapsed oil trader Hin Leong, was convicted in 2024 of cheating HSBC of US$111.6 million through fabricated contracts, in what prosecutors called one of the most serious cases of trade financing fraud ever prosecuted in Singapore.
Hin Leong was once one of Asia's largest oil traders and a pillar of Singapore's tight-knit oil trading community. Its collapse in 2020 sent shockwaves through the industry after Lim revealed the company had written off US$800 million in futures trading losses that had been hidden for years. The firm owed US$3.85 billion to 23 lenders, including its largest creditor HSBC at US$600 million, plus significant exposures at Singapore's three local banks. Lim resigned on April 17, 2020, the same day the company sought court protection, and police confirmed a criminal investigation days later.
After a trial lasting more than 60 days, Lim was convicted in May 2024 on two counts of cheating and one count of abetting forgery. The court found he had duped HSBC into disbursing US$111.6 million based on two fabricated oil sale contracts, purportedly with China Aviation Oil (Singapore) and Unipec Singapore, and had instructed a former employee to forge documents supporting the bogus deals. In November 2024 he was sentenced to 17 and a half years in jail.
Lim appealed, and on March 4, 2026 the High Court cut his sentence to 13 and a half years. Justice Hoo Sheau Peng found the original term crushing even with the usual one-third remission, granting discounts for substantial restitution made and Lim's old age, though she rejected his plea for judicial mercy in the form of a one-day jail term.
The criminal case was only part of the reckoning. In September 2024 Lim consented to a US$3.5 billion civil judgment in favour of Hin Leong's liquidators and HSBC, and he, his son Evan Lim Chee Meng and his daughter Lim Huey Ching were declared bankrupt that December after acknowledging they lacked the assets to pay. The liquidators had alleged the company suffered US$808 million in futures and swaps losses between 2010 and 2020, concealed by overstating profits by US$2.1 billion.
In July 2026 the prosecution withdrew Lim's remaining 127 charges, administering a stern warning instead and securing a discharge amounting to an acquittal, closing the book on one of the most spectacular corporate downfalls in Singapore's history. For the banks, traders and investors burned by the saga, the case reshaped how trade finance risk is viewed across Asia's commodity hub.