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SINGAPORE: What started out as two families enjoying close ties soured after a purported loan of S$2.4 million (US$1.8 million) was not returned.
When the lender, chief executive of SGX mainboard-listed logistics company Vibrant Group Khua Kian Keong, went to collect a sum of S$100,000 that he felt would prove the borrower’s sincerity, he was rebuffed.
In his anger, he pushed the 74-year-old father of his debtor down a flight of stairs, leaving him bloodied and with facial fractures.
Khua, 55, was convicted on Thursday (Aug 3) of one count of voluntarily causing hurt to Mr Tan Tock Han in January 2021, after claiming trial to the charge.
GOOD RELATIONS TURNED SOUR
Khua and his family used to be good friends with the victim’s family for about 50 years. The victim and Khua’s father used to play golf together.
The victim’s son, Mr Wilson Tan Kheng Yeow, knew Khua from when they were teenagers and would meet up for dinner and drinks.
Khua and the victim also served in many organisations together, including the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Thong Chai Hospital’s board of directors and the Singapore Metal and Machinery Association.
“They were effectively household names in the circle of local Chinese businessmen, amongst whom the accused also enjoyed a good reputation,” said Deputy Public Prosecutor Yvonne Poon.
The Tan family was heavily involved in the running of SGX mainboard-listed company KTL Global and its subsidiary KTL Offshore, with the victim then the director and executive chairman of KTL Global.
According to Khua, when the victim’s son Wilson was the CEO of KTL Global, he approached Khua as he needed money. They purportedly agreed for Khua to extend Wilson a total loan of about S$2.4 million in exchange for 15.5 million KTL Global shares.
According to Khua, these sums were not investments but loans. He charged no interest and extended them only because he treated Wilson as a good friend, with no document specifying the loans as he felt their friendship surpassed the need for black-and-white documentation.
However, when Wilson did not pay him back, Khua went to Wilson’s father instead, as he had extended the money on the basis that the KTL companies needed funds.
For six years, the Tan family rejected Khua’s attempts to claw back the money or acknowledge the debt. According to claims made by Khua, the Tan family said that life is tough, business is poor or the shipping industry is bad.
In 2018, when Khua himself faced cashflow issues in his company, he tried asking Wilson for the money back, saying he needed it.
The prosecutor said it was accepted that Khua is a very rich man, with the loss of S$2.4 million not angering him nor affecting his livelihood.
However, it became a point of principle for Khua and whether the Tan family had any sincerity in returning him the sum, as well as a matter of reputation within the circle of local Chinese businessmen.
“He was known to be a successful businessman, with a sharp business acumen and of good character,” said Ms Poon. “Despite that, he still made mistakes. He had made a mistake placing his trust in the Tan family.”
THE INCIDENT
On Jan 13, 2021, Khua went down to the KTL office at 7 Gul Drive with the intention of claiming a symbolic sum of S$100,000 from Wilson’s father. He wanted to see if the Tan family would honour the purported loans.
Witnesses at the office said Khua spoke in a loud, rude and unfriendly voice.
The victim testified he had told Khua that he had no money.
While he was walking towards a flight of stairs, someone pushed him in the back and the victim felt “a great force”.
He said he could not see who it was, but guessed it was a pair of hands pushing him.
Khua denied pushing the victim. He said he had tried to pull the victim back with his hands, claiming that he had tried to warn him about the danger of slipping.
Closed-circuit television footage available only partially captured what happened, with both sides arguing about the precise sequence of events.
After the victim was pushed down the flight of stairs, he felt dizzy and was unable to speak. A witness saw him bloodied, trying to get up and speaking faintly.
The victim was taken to hospital with bruises on his knees, fractured facial bones and lacerations on his lip and hand.
The prosecution said that Khua gave “shifting, inconsistent” accounts in attempts to “dissemble and dissociate himself from culpability for his actions”.
The defence said Khua could not have pushed the victim down the stairs based on his repeated claims that he had not done it, the fact that he apparently was not violent and respected the victim a lot, and was aware that the ultimate debtor was the victim’s son.
The judge ultimately found him guilty.
Khua was defended by Senior Counsel N Sreenivasan and Mr S Balamurugan from K&L Straits Gates Law.
He will return to court for mitigation and sentencing in October.
The penalty for voluntarily causing grievous hurt is a maximum of 10 years’ jail and caning. However, Khua cannot be caned because he is above 50.
A court had ordered KTL Global to pay Khua a sum of S$933,800 in March this year, one of the three loans making up the S$2.4 million sum.
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