Man and ex-wife cooked up sham to reduce assets for his second divorce: Judge

She claimed he had failed to pay her $13.7m in exchange for transferring shares to him

- Selina Lum

A businessman and his former wife came up with a sham with the intention of reducing the value of his assets as he was going through a divorce with his current wife, a High Court judge has found.

In August 2023, the former wife, Ms Chiang Ai Ling, filed a $13.7 million lawsuit against Mr Tan Kian Chye and his second wife, Ms Ang Siew Yan.

Ms Ang had filed for divorce from Mr Tan in December 2022.

Ms Chiang alleged that Mr Tan had failed to pay her the sum in exchange for her transferring all her shares in his company to him.

She claimed that he had orally agreed in 2015 to pay her 25 per cent of the proceeds from the sale of his company.

Mr Tan, who has a child with each woman, did not contest the lawsuit.

But Ms Ang contended that the purported 2015 agreement was a sham conceived by Ms Chiang and Mr Tan to reduce the assets liable for division in the ongoing divorce.

In a written judgment issued on Dec 30, Justice Audrey Lim said the evidence showed that the purported agreement never existed and that the sham was conceived after Ms Ang filed for divorce.

The judge dismissed Ms Chiang's claim for the sum of $13.7 million or any amount pertaining to the shares that were held in her name.

Justice Lim also declared that the sham agreement did not affect the division of assets in the ongoing divorce.

Ms Chiang and Mr Tan married in February 1995. A year later, Mr Tan set up a company called RYB Engineering.

Initially, Ms Chiang held 25 per cent of the shares in the firm, and Mr Tan held 75 per cent.