Prosecutors have closed their 54-day criminal case against Hyflux founder Olivia Lum and five co-defendants over alleged disclosure failures around the Tuaspring water-and-power project, ending 59 weeks of proceedings in one of Singapore's largest corporate scandals.
The trial, which began in August 2025 before Principal District Judge Toh Han Li, saw the prosecution call 22 witnesses, including former Hyflux staff who prepared corporate announcements and bank representatives involved in negotiating financing for Tuaspring. According to the prosecution, Lum, now 65, was so determined to win the Tuaspring integrated water and power project in 2011 that she intentionally withheld material information from investors, including the fact that the project's profitability hinged on electricity sales, which she feared would deter backers.
Lum faces charges over consenting to Hyflux's omission of information required under Singapore Exchange listing rules. The prosecution alleged that Hyflux won the Tuaspring tender with the lowest submitted bid, proposing to sell water to national water agency PUB at a first-year tariff of 45 cents per cubic metre, undercutting competitors by at least 27 per cent, which meant the plant would operate at a loss on water sales alone. To make the project financially viable, Hyflux intended for the power plant to supply electricity to the desalination plant while selling the vast majority of its generated power to the national grid, even though the company had no prior experience in power generation or selling electricity.
Lum was first charged in November 2022 together with former chief financial officer Cho Wee Peng and four independent directors: Teo Kiang Kok, Gay Chee Cheong, Christopher Murugasu and Lee Joo Hai. A seventh accused, former director Rajsekar Kuppuswami Mitta, pleaded guilty earlier and was fined S$90,000 and barred from holding directorships. The prosecution proceeded on 11 charges against the six defendants, including two charges each against Lum and the four directors over failing to notify the SGX that Tuaspring marked Hyflux's expansion into the new business of selling electricity, and that the plant's profitability was contingent on electricity revenue making up a significant share of overall income. Four Companies Act charges against Lum were stood down.
Hyflux was placed under judicial management in November 2020 and wound up in 2021. Its collapse, driven by weak electricity sales, left about 34,000 investors in its perpetual securities and preference shares, who had sunk a combined $900 million into the company, with nothing. Court proceedings heard that Hyflux turned to retail and institutional investors to fund Tuaspring partly because it struggled to secure bank loans, and that DBS was the party that floated the idea of issuing preference shares to raise funds in 2011.
Lum, once celebrated as Singapore's 'Queen of Water' and the first woman to win the Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur Of The Year award in 2011, has denied the charges. On October 21, the defence team led by Senior Counsel Davinder Singh will indicate whether the defendants intend to submit that there is 'no case to answer', a move that could end the proceedings without the defence calling evidence.