Sell off of OK Lim’s fleet gathers pace
Singaporean shipowner and oil trader, OK Lim, liquidises his fleet, with about 50 out of 150 vessels already sold
OK Lim, the Singaporean shipowner and oil trader, has continued to offload his many vessels, reports Reuters. 50 of his 150 barges and ships have already been sold by court-appointed supervisor, Grant Thornton, after Lim’s business empire collapsed following allegations of fraud last year.
Lim was charged with abetment of forgery in connection with two loan applications and Singaporean prosecutors contend he directed an executive at Hin Leong Trading — his oil house — to falsify documents pertaining to tens of millions of dollars in trade financing. He is also alleged to have overstated inventory and to have accumulated more debt by deceiving lenders.
Lim admitted to cooking the books in April 2020 and said: “In this regard, I had given instructions to the finance department to prepare the accounts without showing the losses and told them that I would be responsible if anything went wrong”.
The 40 per cent managing stake the Lim family hold in a liquid bulk terminal on Jurong Island will be taken over by Jurong Port and ownership will be shared by the port along with PetroChina and Macquarie.
