Hin Leong oil tycoon OK Lim appeals against conviction in US$111.7 million case

However, Mr Singh charged that the prosecution had “changed its case” and that there was “no evidence” that Lim had given instructions to Hin Leong staff to submit the documents to HSBC.

He added that there was no evidence of “delivery” of the amounts stated in the charges, and no evidence of any such direction to former accounts executive Katherine Ong.

Instead, Mr Singh alleged that the prosecution had “changed its case” because it was unable to prove what was central to its case.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Christopher Ong, who is also a senior counsel, rejected this notion.

He said what was most telling was the lies given by Lim in an attempt to resolve his answers given in his police statements.

“On the one hand, he claimed he had been confused during statement recording and unable to comprehend, and therefore his answers cannot be relied on, yet on the other hand, he made the contradictory claim that he was actually able to recollect what he said to the investigating officer,” said Mr Ong, adding that Lim cannot “have it both ways”.

He charged that Lim was “simply an unreliable witness” who was prepared to say anything to escape the consequences.

And while Lim claimed at trial that he was trying to protect his employees, Mr Ong said he was “trying to protect himself” simply by buying time, because Lim did not know at the time what the police might already have uncovered, or what his employees might have already told the police.

He said Lim is “continuing to try to evade responsibility” for his criminal acts.

Justice Hoo Sheau Peng adjourned the case to Nov 14 for arguments on the sentence meted to Lim.

Lim was also embroiled in a civil trial brought by liquidators against the Lim family. This concluded after Lim and his two children consented to a judgment of US$3.5 billion being entered against them.

Lim and his children were declared bankrupt in December last year following the judgment.

Lim’s daughter, Lim Huey Ching, went on trial for obstructing justice earlier this month.

She is accused of instructing an IT manager at Hin Leong Trading to ensure that deleted items on the company’s servers were not recoverable, and that previous back-ups must be disposed of permanently.