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Posted: Fri Apr 24, 2009 7:58 pm Post subject: Hotshot Debt Recovery Lawyer Sought Over Debt Claims</TD><TD vAlign=top noWrap>
</TD></TR><TR><TD colSpan=2><HR></TD></TR><TR><TD colSpan=2>A LAWYER reputed to be a hotshot in debt recovery is now apparently in debt himself - and has been unreachable.
Mr Mark Han, who is in his early 40s, has four creditors on his back who have filed claims exceeding $243,000. It is unclear if he is still practising.
The creditors are finance companies IFS Capital and Orix Capital, printer and copier-machine maker Fuji Xerox, and law firm Harry Elias.
The sums are related to contractual and hire purchase agreements and, in the case of Harry Elias, legal bills run up when the firm represented him on personal matters. Three of the four claims were filed in the first three months of this year, and the remaining one in October 2007 by Orix Capital, which is claiming $33,000 to settle a contractual dispute involving photocopying equipment.
But the creditors' quest for claims may have hit a snag: Mr Han has apparently been uncontactable, and his father would only say his son was overseas.
Lawyers who spoke on condition of anonymity were surprised by the claims against a lawyer they described as successful.
'I didn't think he was in any sort of financial difficulty. He's got a lot of money,' said one.
After Mr Han graduated from the National University of Singapore's law school in 1991, he worked in law firm Yeo-Leong & Peh, where he built his reputation in the recovery of credit card bills and other debts. He had a high-profile case in 1999, when, acting for Citibank, he petitioned successfully for well-known local golfer Samson Gimson to be made bankrupt over a $42,000 credit card debt.
He set up a thriving practice under his own name in the late 1990s. His clients included banks, and he zipped around chauffeur-driven, said one lawyer, adding: 'He made the big law firms look small.'
A few months ago, Mr Han got a fellow lawyer, Mr Jeyabalen, to take over his office premises in Chin Swee Road. Mr Jeyabalen moved in last December, but has been unable to contact Mr Han since. Mr Han's mail is still arriving there, but a courier shows up to pick it up every few days. It is not known where the mail is taken to.
Contacted, Mr Han's father said he did not know where his son was, and that he last saw him at the start of this year. The older man said he used to live with his son, who was married, but claimed to know little about his career.
Registry of Marriages records show Mr Han was married twice - first in 1995 and again in 2004.
It is believed he has yet to renew his practising certificate for this year and has until the end of the month to do so.
Contacted, a Law Society spokesman said the society cannot reveal if it has received any complaints against particular lawyers, and that it does not comment on 'the conduct of any lawyer involving his or her personal matters'.
Lawyers for IFS Capital, which wants $132,000 from Mr Han, served a writ of summons on him through a notice in the newspapers on Wednesday, ostensibly because they could not locate him and serve it in person.
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Posted: Fri Apr 24, 2009 7:58 pm Post subject: Hotshot Debt Recovery Lawyer Sought Over Debt Claims</TD><TD vAlign=top noWrap>
</TD></TR><TR><TD colSpan=2><HR></TD></TR><TR><TD colSpan=2>A LAWYER reputed to be a hotshot in debt recovery is now apparently in debt himself - and has been unreachable. Mr Mark Han, who is in his early 40s, has four creditors on his back who have filed claims exceeding $243,000. It is unclear if he is still practising.
The creditors are finance companies IFS Capital and Orix Capital, printer and copier-machine maker Fuji Xerox, and law firm Harry Elias.
The sums are related to contractual and hire purchase agreements and, in the case of Harry Elias, legal bills run up when the firm represented him on personal matters. Three of the four claims were filed in the first three months of this year, and the remaining one in October 2007 by Orix Capital, which is claiming $33,000 to settle a contractual dispute involving photocopying equipment.
But the creditors' quest for claims may have hit a snag: Mr Han has apparently been uncontactable, and his father would only say his son was overseas.
Lawyers who spoke on condition of anonymity were surprised by the claims against a lawyer they described as successful.
'I didn't think he was in any sort of financial difficulty. He's got a lot of money,' said one.
After Mr Han graduated from the National University of Singapore's law school in 1991, he worked in law firm Yeo-Leong & Peh, where he built his reputation in the recovery of credit card bills and other debts. He had a high-profile case in 1999, when, acting for Citibank, he petitioned successfully for well-known local golfer Samson Gimson to be made bankrupt over a $42,000 credit card debt.
He set up a thriving practice under his own name in the late 1990s. His clients included banks, and he zipped around chauffeur-driven, said one lawyer, adding: 'He made the big law firms look small.'
A few months ago, Mr Han got a fellow lawyer, Mr Jeyabalen, to take over his office premises in Chin Swee Road. Mr Jeyabalen moved in last December, but has been unable to contact Mr Han since. Mr Han's mail is still arriving there, but a courier shows up to pick it up every few days. It is not known where the mail is taken to.
Contacted, Mr Han's father said he did not know where his son was, and that he last saw him at the start of this year. The older man said he used to live with his son, who was married, but claimed to know little about his career.
Registry of Marriages records show Mr Han was married twice - first in 1995 and again in 2004.
It is believed he has yet to renew his practising certificate for this year and has until the end of the month to do so.
Contacted, a Law Society spokesman said the society cannot reveal if it has received any complaints against particular lawyers, and that it does not comment on 'the conduct of any lawyer involving his or her personal matters'.
Lawyers for IFS Capital, which wants $132,000 from Mr Han, served a writ of summons on him through a notice in the newspapers on Wednesday, ostensibly because they could not locate him and serve it in person.
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