Singapore court sides with husband in company dispute involving missing Pamela Ling
PUTRAJAYA, Nov 3 — Seven months after the disappearance of Sarawak businesswoman Pamela Ling, the Singapore High Court has ruled in favour of her estranged husband Thomas Hah in a dispute over ownership of a company holding six commercial properties in Singapore.
In a report yesterday Singapore’s The Straits Times, Justice Chua Lee Ming found that Hah, the founder of Malaysian conglomerate Joinland Group, was the beneficial owner of Multi Galaxy Pte Ltd, and that Ling’s registered shares were held in trust for him.
The judge ruled that Ling had wrongfully transferred 279,650 shares, or 55.93 per cent of the company, to herself in December 2023 and that her removal of Hah as director was invalid.
She was also ordered to repay S$203,281.68 that she had transferred from Hah’s bank account and S$155,903.23 in rental proceeds from two jointly-owned properties in Lincoln Road and Upper East Coast Road.
The verdict was delivered on October 21, following a one-day trial where Hah testified via video link from Malaysia while two of his employees appeared in person.
Hah’s lawyer told the court his client chose to proceed on the merits of the case rather than seek default judgment despite Ling’s absence.
Ling, 42, was reportedly abducted in Putrajaya on April 9 while travelling to meet officers of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) regarding an investigation into alleged corruption and money-laundering involving her and Hah.
Her brother raised the alarm in May, drawing public attention to her disappearance, which remains unresolved.
Court documents showed that Ling had sued Hah in Singapore in October 2024, accusing him of forging her signature to obtain her shares in Multi Galaxy, while Hah counter-claimed that she had wrongfully seized control of his company.
The couple, who married in 2001 and have three children, had filed for divorce separately — she in Singapore in August 2023 and he in Malaysia that December.
Multi Galaxy, originally incorporated as Joinland Group Pte Ltd in 2009, had seen its shares transferred back and forth between the pair over the years due to banking and immigration reasons, according to Hah’s testimony.
