Goh Jin Hian (Photo by Albert Chua/The Edge Singapore)

(Feb 7): Singapore’s High Court has found Goh Jin Hian liable for US$146 million (RM695.7 million) in losses under his watch as director of a now-insolvent marine fuel supplying company, adding to the legal problems facing the son of former prime minister Goh Chok Tong.

Doing his duties “would have led him to realise that the company was being defrauded,” judge Aedit Abdullah said in published remarks dated Jan 24 on a petition involving Inter-Pacific Petroleum Pte. The defence argued there was no such breach or causation of loss, and regardless, the company qualifies for relief from liability under the Companies Act.

“The financial position of the company was suspect, and should have primed the defendant to look further and obtain a picture of the true state of the affairs of the company and monitor what was happening within it,” the judge said. “That was his duty as a director.”

“Loss was caused to the plaintiff through the transactions and drawdowns which should not have been carried out and would not have been had the defendant performed his duties,” the judge said.

The development comes amid a number of scandals in the Asian financial hub known for its zero tolerance for corruption. A separate billion-dollar money laundering probe is already shining a light on fund flows from abroad and raising questions about loopholes that enabled an alleged criminal syndicate to accumulate massive amounts of wealth.

Goh, 55, served as a director of Inter-Pacific Petroleum from 2011 to 2019, Channel News Asia reported. He was among four people charged last year with false trading offences linked to investment holding company New Silkroutes Group Ltd.

They are accused of creating a “misleading appearance with respect to the price” of its securities on 31 trading days between February and August of 2018. That’s equivalent to market manipulation.