Published Tue, Mar 31, 2026 \u00b7 09:43 AM<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n [SINGAPORE] Hin Leong founder\u00a0Lim\u00a0Oon Kuin was hospitalised with breathing difficulties just three days before the 84-year-old\u2019s 13\u00bd-year prison sentence was due to start on Wednesday (Apr 1).<\/p>\n His son, Evan\u00a0Lim, told The Straits Times<\/em> on Monday that the elder Lim was hospitalised in Gleneagles Hospital on Mar 28 after \u201cwe found him disoriented in the study, mumbling he has difficulty breathing\u201d.<\/p>\n Lim was ordered to surrender at the State Courts on Wednesday after the High Court on Mar 4 allowed his appeal and imposed a jail term of 13\u00bd years, shaving off four years from his original sentence of 17\u00bd years for cheating and abetting forgery.<\/p>\n When asked if Lim will report to the State Courts on Wednesday, his son said: \u201cWe are waiting for the doctor\u2019s report.\u201d<\/p>\n On what\u00a0his father\u2019s\u00a0lawyers have advised him to do, Evan Lim said: \u201cI believe it\u2019s best to wait for the medical report from the doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n ST<\/em> has contacted the Singapore Prison Service\u00a0for comment.<\/p>\n Get the insights delivered to your inbox.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n When asked what triggered the breathing difficulties, Evan Lim said: \u201cWe are still waiting for the doctor to run more tests on him, we have no answers yet.\u201d<\/p>\n On Mar 4, High Court judge Hoo Sheau Peng found that the original jail term of 17\u00bd years was \u201ccrushing\u201d, even with the usual one-third remission.<\/p>\n She found that the district judge who sentenced\u00a0Lim\u00a0erred in according weight<\/a> to the prosecution\u2019s arguments that\u00a0Lim\u2019s offences had undermined public confidence in the oil trading sector. <\/p>\n SEE ALSO<\/p>\n Justice Hoo gave him sentencing discounts on account of substantial restitution made, as well as\u00a0Lim\u2019s old age. She noted that the loss to HSBC on one of the cheating charges was almost halved, from US$56 million to US$29.7 million, after\u00a0Lim\u00a0made restitution.<\/p>\n But the judge rejected\u00a0Lim\u2019s call for the court to exercise judicial mercy by imposing a one-day jail term.<\/p>\n Judicial mercy is the discretionary power of Singapore\u2019s courts to impose a more lenient sentence because of exceptional mitigating circumstances.\u00a0It has so far been exercised in cases where the offender is suffering from a terminal illness, and where the offender is so ill that jail time would carry a high risk of endangering his life.<\/p>\n Lim\u2019s lawyer, Senior Counsel Davinder Singh, in an appeal hearing in November 2025, had argued that there is a heightened risk of his client suffering a fall in\u00a0prison\u00a0that may lead to his death.<\/p>\n Lim, who is better known as\u00a0OK\u00a0Lim,\u00a0was sentenced in November 2024 for two counts of cheating<\/a>\u00a0and one count of abetting forgery, in what prosecutors described as \u201cone of the most serious cases of trade financing fraud that (has) ever been prosecuted in Singapore\u201d.<\/p>\n He was found guilty of cheating HSBC of US$111.6 million, through Hin Leong employees, by claiming that the oil trading firm had entered into two contracts to sell oil to China Aviation Oil (Singapore) and Unipec Singapore, and then applying for discounting of these purported transactions.<\/p>\n The court found that the two transactions were complete fabrications, concocted on\u00a0Lim\u2019s directions, and the discounting applications were supported by forged or fabricated documentation. THE STRAITS TIMES<\/a><\/p>\nNavigate Asia in
a new global order<\/h3>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n