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SINGAPORE \u2013 After breaking up with his girlfriend of more than a year, the chief executive of a listed company sued her to recover the $468,090 he had spent on her during their relationship.<\/p>\n
On Sept 9, the High Court dismissed Chander Agarwal\u2019s claim that the various sums of money he spent on his former girlfriend, Felicia Lee, were loans that had to be repaid.<\/p>\n
In a written judgment, Senior Judge Lee Seiu Kin ruled that most of the sums were gifts that Agarwal had willingly given to Lee.<\/p>\n
These include $206,000 in credit card charges, $129,000 spent on overseas trips, $17,000 to engage a feng shui master for her flat and $30,000 in fees for a Stanford-NUS executive programme.<\/p>\n
Agarwal failed to prove he had given her two other sums, including $50,000 he claimed he lent her to clear a debt to her former employer, the judge said.<\/p>\n
The judge added that Agarwal could not point to any evidence showing that the woman had requested the disputed sums as loans or had agreed to repay him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe evidence before me clearly shows that the claimant, smitten by the defendant, had showered her with expensive gifts during their relationship,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, when their relationship ended on a sour note, the claimant became embittered and was determined to extract a price from her.\u201d<\/p>\n
The judge quoted the lines from the 1697 play The Mourning Bride: \u201cHeav\u2019n has no rage, like love to hatred turn\u2019d, nor hell a fury, like a woman scorn\u2019d.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThis case shows that such emotion is not the sole province of one gender.\u201d<\/p>\n
Agarwal is the CEO and managing director of TCI Express, an Indian company listed on the National Stock Exchange of India and the Bombay Stock Exchange.<\/p>\n
The defendant is a former flight attendant who later worked as an insurance agent and medical sales officer.<\/p>\n
They met on a flight in 2019. Agarwal later approached Lee on Facebook, and they started meeting up.<\/p>\n
In September 2022, they began a romantic relationship, which ended in December 2023 after he suspected her of infidelity.<\/p>\n
He filed the lawsuit in March 2024.<\/p>\n
Even before the relationship started, he gave her numerous lavish gifts without expecting repayment.<\/p>\n
He once booked a limousine to take her home after dinner, bought her luxury items from brands such as Hermes, Louis Vuitton and Prada, and paid almost all her expenses on a European tour they took together.<\/p>\n
In May 2021, when she said on WhatsApp that it had been years since she last took a plane, Agarwal replied: \u201cSoon, soon can fly. I have a first class\/suite ticket booked for you already, wherever you want to go when it opens. If not, take the private jet then.\u201d<\/p>\n
When she messaged him in August 2022 to ask how she could repay him, he replied: \u201cNo need. I am not a moneylender.\u201d<\/p>\n
In September 2022, he told her she should not be shy about using his money if they were \u201ctogether\u201d and offered her a monthly budget of $1,500 for taxi, dining and beauty expenses.<\/p>\n
In December 2022, he offered her the use of his American Express Centurion Card, telling her in a text message: \u201cYou don\u2019t have a budget now. Anything you want.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another message said: \u201cAnd spoil yourself too, please.\u201d<\/p>\n
The judge said: \u201cWhile it is not uncommon for exchanges between romantic partners to be informal, it is telling that the claimant could not point to, for example, any WhatsApp message where the defendant acknowledged receipt of the loans that she had allegedly requested.\u201d<\/p>\n
Agarwal, represented by Mohamed Baiross, presented a handwritten agreement to the court purportedly signed by the woman.<\/p>\n
In the document, the woman purportedly stated that the monthly \u201cdeposit\u201d of $10,000 to $25,000 she took from Agarwal belonged to him.<\/p>\n
The woman, represented by Sunil Singh Panoo, denied having signed or even seen the document before the court proceedings.<\/p>\n
The judge said the circumstances in which the agreement was presented were suspect and gave limited weight to a handwriting expert\u2019s opinion that the signature was genuine.<\/p>\n
Although Agarwal based his claims purely on the agreement, he made no reference to it in his original statement of claim, which instead stated that he \u201cnever insisted that the parties entered into a formal written agreement\u201d.<\/p>\n
He referred to the agreement only seven months later, when he filed an amended statement of claim.<\/p>\n
The judge also pointed out that the statements in the document were contradicted by the facts.<\/p>\n
For instance, the woman did not take $10,000 to $25,000 a month but instead received various sums for different purposes from time to time.<\/p>\n
In any event, a subsequent note signed by Agarwal in May 2023, in which he promised that he would never ask for the return of items given to her out of goodwill, superseded any prior agreement, the judge said.<\/p>\n
Cross-examined during the trial, Agarwal said that when they started dating, \u201ceverything became a loan, everything was transactional\u201d, but \u201cbefore that, it wasn\u2019t\u201d.<\/p>\n
He also said that once she accepted his offers to spend his money, the expenses would automatically become loans.<\/p>\n
The judge said the stance taken by Agarwal was contrary to common sense and unsustainable.<\/p>\n
He added that Agarwal was likely being evasive when confronted in court with unfavourable evidence, such as his repeated offers to the defendant to spend for her benefit and assurances that she did not need to repay him.<\/p>\n
The judge also rejected Agarwal\u2019s argument that the woman induced him to give her the disputed sums by making false representations that they were in a genuine and exclusive relationship and that she would repay him.<\/p>\n
The judge said Agarwal\u2019s conduct during the relationship appeared to be a continuation of his relationship style before the couple started dating.<\/p>\n
This conclusion was supported by evidence showing that Agarwal had sexual relations with other women while the couple were in a relationship, casting doubt on whether he himself considered their relationship to be genuine and exclusive, the judge added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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