If you thought “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” was hard to follow, strap yourselves up for this local family drama. In case you didn’t know, after the passing of Lim Goh Tong, founder of the Genting Empire, back in 2007, his legacy became the centre of several legal battles between family members over his inheritance to this day.
Adding another twist to the family drama, it was recently reported that the granddaughters of the billionaire are contesting their late mother, Lim Siew Kim’s will, as they believe they are the rightful owners of her wealth.
According to Free Malaysia Today, granddaughters of the late Lim Goh Tong, Chan Tshiao Li, and Kimberly Chan have filed a lawsuit against their late mother’s estate executors, claiming that their mother, who passed away last year, was coerced into signing her last will while she was under the influence of morphine when she underwent treatment for ovarian cancer.
In the will discussed, it was reported that a large portion of Lim Siew Kim’s estimated RM1.6 billion assets was left to the Dikim Foundation, an organisation she founded with her husband Dick Chan back in 1983. The two sisters are said to be challenging the validity of the will since they believe their then-sick mother was not completely aware of its content due to being disoriented by the strong drug.
Siew Kim’s daughters have accused the executors of fraud saying that the will is“null and void” and that their mother passed away without a valid will. In response to the lawsuit, the executors said, “This claim is frivolous and vexatious and an abuse of process. It is brought with ulterior intent and is an attempt to extract money from the deceased’s (Siew Kim’s) estate.”
For your information, this is basically the 4th inheritance battle between the family members. Before his death, Lim Goh Tong carefully devised an “inheritance system” which later proved to be in vain after his eldest son Lim Tee Keong went bankrupt, forcing the Genting founder to transfer Tee Keong’s trusts to his younger siblings Lim Kok Thay, and Lim Chee Wah. So, you can see how this took a turn for the worst.
The first feud began in 2017 when Tee Keong’s children disputed their grandmother Lee Kim Hua’s power of attorney (POA), which was passed on to their uncles Kok Thay, and Chee Wah, was created to gain custody over their late father’s family trust.
The final feud took place in the same year when Siew Kim demanded Kok Thay to pay her RM2.06 billion if he and several others failed to transfer 796,250 shares in Genting Bhd (which she alleges to be the beneficial owner) to her within 14 days. According to FMT, the case is still at the Court of Appeal.
As for the new RM1.6 billion lawsuit, there is currently no update on the case at the time of writing. With an Empire like Genting, we will probably never hear the end of this inheritance saga. It’ll probably get even more gloomy in years to come. What do you think about this family feud?
Source: FMT
