According to The Edge, Benjamin Lim Keong Hoe said the powers conferred on his uncles Lim Kok Thay and Lim Chee Wah by his grandmother, Lee Kim Hua @ Lee Ah Sang, were so great that “if she was of sound mind, there was no intelligible reason why she would have created the general power of attorney giving such wide powers to the first and second defendants”.
He was referring to Kok Thay and Chee Wah, who are the first and second defendants in the case, filed in June. Lee meanwhile is the third defendant.
“At the time when the general power of attorney is alleged to have been executed, the third defendant was not of sound mind, memory and/or understanding or was otherwise incapable of understanding or appreciating the purport, nature, extent or consequence of the general power of attorney by reason of, inter alia, having suffered a stroke in or about September 2010,” he was quoted as saying in his statement of claim.
The report, citing court documents viewed by The Edge, said Lee was understood to have given irrevocable and worldwide power of attorney over her affairs to Kok Thay and Chee Wah on Sept 11, 2012.
This was some two years after she suffered a stroke.
In his statement of claim, Keong Hoe also questioned the consideration of RM10 for the power of attorney to be granted, as well as the fact that Lee’s thumbprint had been used instead of her handwritten signature with Chinese characters.
He said Lee was known to be extremely careful when dealing with her financial affairs, adding that the use of her thumbprint showed that she was not in a physical or mental state to sign the general power of attorney.
In causing the creation of the general power of attorney, he said, Kok Thay and Chee Wah were guilty of exploiting a special disability or disadvantage of another to benefit, the report added.
It noted however that there were two witnesses to Lee’s acknowledgement by thumbprint: Joseph Lai Khee Sin and Keng Siew Hong.
Lee died on Aug 25 at the age of 88, having outlived her husband by some 10 years.
The report said she was said to have suffered a second stroke on April 21, leaving her in “a vegetative state”.
Following their procurement of power of attorney, Kok Thay and Chee Wah were alleged to have caused the transfer of Lee’s share in the family residence to Kok Thay on July 31, 2014, The Edge said.
Likewise, Lee’s indirect holding in Applewood Sdn Bhd was transferred to Chee Wah and the Ridgefield Trust, of which he is a beneficiary, in or around 2015.
Lee’s shares in Beaumaris Sdn Bhd were also transferred to Chee Wah that year.
An associate of Kok Thay told The Edge that he was out of the country but would be back late this month, after which he could address any questions regarding Lee’s will.
According to the report, Keong Hoe’s brother Joey Lim Keong Yew and sister Marie Lim Seok Leng are also taking their uncles to court over issues with their father’s will and them being left out of Goh Tong’s trust.
Keong Hoe, Keong Yew and Seok Leng are the children of Lim Tee Keong, Goh Tong’s eldest son.
Tee Keong died a bankrupt on April 14, 2014.
Kok Thay is chairman and chief executive of Genting Bhd while Chee Wah holds no position in any of the companies.