Man made himself partner hours after boss died

[MarrickG]

 

[cooleo]

Why no content? Only pic

 

[HellAngel]

Ya..why har?

 

[postnew]

3 hours after his boss dies, man adds himself as partner in records

By Crystal Chan

FOR four years, Lee Poh Lee (pictured above), 63, ran a crane services company with a dead man as his business partner. Transcrane Services made money, but its profits had a dark secret.
The business had belonged solely to the dead man but Lee had taken advantage of his boss' death, and cheated his family of the money.
Court documents showed that just three hours after his boss, Mr Ko Kim Hock, 53, died at 12.38pm on 23 Aug 2005, Lee quietly added his name into Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (Acra) records as the dead man's business partner.
He did this without telling Mr Ko's family. It was an act that ignited a legal tussle between Lee and Mr Ko's family, with the latter winning back control of Transcrane as well as its profits, estimated to be hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Salary

In an interview with The New Paper on Thursday, Mr Ko's brother, Mr Kor Beng Shien, said the family first suspected that something was wrong when Lee handed them a cheque for $1,500 at Mr Ko's funeral wake, saying it was the latter's salary.
He also told the family that he was the one who gave Mr Ko the funds to start the company, and that Mr Ko was his worker. Not wanting to create a scene in front of Mr Ko's coffin, the family did not react then.
Mr Kor, 40, a remisier, said: "We're quite pantang (Malay for superstitious) so we stayed calm and ushered
Lee to a table and served him drinks.
"We didn't want to quarrel in front of my brother's coffin as we felt he wouldn't rest in peace."
After Mr Ko, a bachelor, was cremated and his ashes placed in Bright Hill Columbarium, his nine siblings and mother, Madam Lim Geok Eng, 80, set about uncovering the truth. The siblings' father died several years ago.
An ACRA search showed Lee had converted Transcrane - originally a sole proprietorship under Mr Ko - into a partnership with himself.
Lee knew of Mr Ko's death from liver cirrhosis as one of the latter's sisters had called him with the news. Mr Kor, who is also administering Mr Ko's estate, said: "My brother kept to himself and never told us he had a business partner. "Still, we wanted to investigate because all along, we knew Transcrane belonged to our brother.
"We never encashed the cheque as we couldn't believe it was our brother's salary. My brother was the boss, how could he have become an employee?"
The cheque that Lee gave the family was used as evidence during the trial from 12 to 14 Aug. Justice Tan Lee Meng awarded judgement to Mr Ko's family on 25 Nov. Before he became a remisier, Mr Kor said he had helped his late brother with Transcrane's administrative matters, including writing and encashing cheques. He did this from the time Transcrane was set up in October 1996 until September 1998.
He said: "After I began my current job, my brother told us he had a mechanic friend to run his errands. I presume this friend was Lee, though my brother never told us who it was."
Lee had no official job title at Transcrane but he stated in his affidavit that he and Mr Ko were close friends who went on trips together.
Mr Sum Fook Hong, Transcrane's book-keeper, had testified in court that he took Lee's instructions to add the latter as Mr Ko's business partner in Acra records, because of the two men's close friendship.
Mr Ko, who trusted Lee, had given the latter his SingPass, which is used to do online procedures involving government agencies, including changing business ownership.
Acra is a statutory board under the Ministry of Law. As Lee did not know how to make the changes online, he sought Mr Sum's help.
Mr Sum testified in court that he did not of Mr Ko's death at the time he accessed Transcrane's Acra record and he would not have done so if he knew.
Mr Sum thought something was wrong when he learnt about Mr Ko's death, but kept quiet as he did not want to create any trouble.


Coma


But when he was called as a witness for Mr Ko's family, he decided to tell the truth.
Mr Kor described his late brother as an easy-going person who struck it out on his own after working as a crane driver for more than 20 years.
He said: "My brother suffered from hepatitis B and was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis in 2002. Still, he continued working till the day he collapsed."
On 18 Aug 2005, Mr Ko vomited blood at a worksite and was rushed to National University Hospital, where he fell into a coma.
It was Lee who informed Mr Ko's family. Mr Kor recounted: "He never woke up from the coma and died from internal bleeding five days later."
After discovering the unauthorised conversion of the business, Mr Ko's family got a lawyer to write to Lee in December 2005, demanding an accounting of Transcrane's profits.
As a precaution, Mr Kor also got Mr S G Kannan, who was his lawyer then, to close Transcrane's bank account, which had more than $63,000.
The bank accepted the instruction as Mr Kor was the administrator of his brother's estate. Lee ignored the lawyer's letter and Mr Ko's family felt that a law suit was the only solution.
But the family, represented by lawyer N Kanagavijayan, filed the suit only in July last year, as it had to raise at least $100,000 for the legal fees.
Lee's countersuit for the return of the $63,000 was dismissed.
Mr Kor said:"We had to think seriously about initiating a suit as it was a huge risk. We may or may not have won and if we lost, we'd have to pay Lee's legal fees too."
The family decided to raise the money for the legal fees by liquidating Mr Ko's assets, which comprised shares and life insurance policies.
But they could do so only from 2006 as Mr Ko died without leaving a will and they had to wait for the State to grant the letters of administration.
Mr Kor said: "My mother told us to proceed with the lawsuit as she didn't want to let Lee get away with seizing my brother's company.
"She is very happy with the outcome of the trial. Obviously, all this happened as my brother trusted the wrong person."
Attempts to reach Lee and his lawyer for comments were not successful.


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About the case

LEE Poh Lee's defence to the suit was that he had given $10,000 to Mr Ko Kim Hock to start Transcrane. Due to "extenuating circumstances" that were not described in the judgement,
Transcrane was registered only in Mr Ko's name. Lee claimed Mr Ko ran the company in trust for him.
In his affidavit, Lee claimed that when Mr Ko fell ill in 2003, he wanted him to take over the company as the latter had liver cancer.
Lee added that Mr Ko had told him to register himself as a partner of Transcrane, explaining that Mr Ko had wanted a "smooth return of the business to him" as he could no longer function as a trustee.
But Lee could not explain why the change was not done in 2003. There was also no proof that he had given Mr Ko the money to set up Transcrane.
Justice Tan Lee Meng did not buy Lee's explanation.
In his judgement, Justice Tan wrote: "If Lee is the sole beneficial owner of the business, a question arises as to why he arranged for the business to be converted to a partnership on 23 Aug 2005 and why he continues to operate
Transcrane as a 'partnership' with a dead man."

Justice Tan noted that from all accounts, Mr Ko's actions showed he was Transcrane's boss.
From 1996 to 1999, Mr Ko kept all the monthly statements from Transcrane's account with OCBC Bank and he made many withdrawals for his own purposes. Mr Ko even used part of Transcrane's earnings to invest in shares.
In contrast, Lee could not show that he dealt with the accounts of Transcrane during this period.
Justice Tan felt that if Lee was really the sole beneficiary of the business from the very start, it would have been prudent for him to have been a signatory of the company's cheques during this period.
He wrote: "If, as Lee alleged, Mr Ko wanted to effect a 'smooth return' of the business to him, Transcrane should have been transferred to him in 2003 and the company's records should have been amended to show that he is the sole proprietor."

This article first appeared in The New Paper.

 

[masgnoeL]

Like that also can? Got cheek to show his greedy face on news some more. Not sure why this is a civil case and not a criminal case.

 

[Lee5604]

Quote:>>>In his judgement, Justice Tan wrote: "If Lee is the sole beneficial owner of the business, a question arises as to why he arranged for the business to be converted to a partnership on 23 Aug 2005 and why he continues to operate Transcrane as a 'partnership' with a dead man."<<<

According to Business Law (Commercial Law) a partnership has no continuity in the event of a demise of one of the partners. So, how could the partnership continue to run, because one of the partners was dead?

Transcrane (the company) would not have been able to exist legally, because a partnership requires two or more partners (up to 20 partners).

Can lawyers or some one in the know explain to me why Transcrane (the partnership) was not dissolved or how come Transcrane could be converted from a sole propretorship to a partnership with a dead man as a partner?

Thank you.

 

[makapaaa]

Court documents showed that just three hours after his boss, Mr Ko Kim Hock, 53, died at 12.38pm on 23 Aug 2005, Lee quietly added his name into Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (Acra) records as the dead man's business partner.

=> It sure looks like the BEST PAID govt is sleeping or too eager to make $ from registration fees!

 

[makapaaa]

working as a crane driver for more than 20 years.
He said: "My brother suffered from hepatitis B and was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis in 2002. Still, he continued working till the day he collapsed."
On 18 Aug 2005, Mr Ko vomited blood at a worksite and was rushed to National University Hospital, where he fell into a coma.

=> The is the kind of future that awaits Sporns if they continue to vote in the PAPee TRAITORs in the next GE!

 

[makapaaa]

But the family, represented by lawyer N Kanagavijayan, filed the suit only in July last year, as it had to raise at least $100,000 for the legal fees.

=> The real winners: