News veteran sued over $990k loan said he 'transferred' his shares before joining Mediacorp

Before he joined his new employer Mediacorp, Chinese news veteran Chua Chim Kang signed an agreement to transfer his shares in an education company to his business partner, Ms Lee Kuan Fung.

But they did not inform the third shareholder of the business about the transfer.

The shareholder is a businessman who has sued Mr Chua and Ms Lee for repayment of a $990,000 loan to the education company.

On Jan 9, in the ongoing High Court trial, the businessman’s lawyers questioned the authenticity of the share transfer agreement between Mr Chua and Ms Lee.

Mr Chua is head and chief editor of Chinese news and current affairs at Mediacorp. 

He was with the former Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) for 18 years, and last served as chief editor of the now-defunct evening daily Lianhe Wanbao.

Ms Lee was a former associate editor of bilingual news site omy, and headed the Chinese media digital strategy department at the former SPH. She is now a freelancer.

In 2017, Mr Chua, Ms Lee and Mr Ren Xin Wu agreed to set up a company to promote and teach Mandarin.

The trio signed a joint cooperation agreement under which Mr Ren would invest $10,000 in exchange for 35 per cent of the share capital of the company, called Homing Holdings.

Mr Ren, a Canadian national originally from China, also agreed to provide an interest-free loan of $990,000 to the company as working capital for a term of three years.

The agreement also stated that Mr Chua and Ms Lee have to “commit to management and intellectual property”, and that Mr Chua’s 35 per cent stake in the firm would be held by Ms Lee.

In September 2020, Mr Ren, through his then lawyers, served legal demands on the pair to repay the loan.

Homing was liquidated in January 2021.

In July 2023, Mr Ren sued Mr Chua and Ms Lee, seeking repayment of the loan.

In his suit, Mr Ren accused Ms Lee of mismanaging Homing, and accused Mr Chua and Ms Lee of breaching the 2017 agreement.

 

The trial, which started in November 2024, resumed this week with Ms Lee and Mr Chua taking the stand. Both testified through a Mandarin interpreter.

On Jan 8, Ms Lee said that, in February 2018, she and Mr Chua signed an agreement for his shares in Homing to be transferred to her.

Ms Lee said Mr Chua had suggested this because he was starting his new job at Mediacorp.

She claimed that after the share transfer, Mr Chua was not involved in the management of Homing.

Ms Lee said she forgot to tell Mr Ren about the share transfer and mentioned it to him only in 2020.

On Jan 9, Mr Ren’s lawyer, Ms Jasmin Kang, pressed Ms Lee over the purported transfer.

The lawyer noted that Mr Chua continued to be in a group chat with Ms Lee and Mr Ren, and had access to company reports shared in the chat.

Ms Kang also referred to a conversation in August 2020 that Mr Ren had secretly recorded while he was discussing company matters with Mr Chua over the phone.

During the conversation, when Mr Ren raised an incident concerning the employment pass of an employee, Mr Chua replied that he would keep an eye on the matter.

Ms Kang put it to Ms Lee that there was no genuine share transfer in 2018, and that Mr Chua was still involved in running the company.

Ms Lee disagreed with the assertion.

 

Mr Chua, who took the stand on Jan 9, maintained that, from the outset, he did not want to be involved in the day-to-day management, but Mr Ren had insisted that he be given shares.

Mr Chua said he did raise ideas and suggestions, but cut down on doing this after starting his new job.

Questioned by Ms Kang about the group chat, he said he was not kicked out because they were all friends. He said he read the text messages but never opened the attachments.

Ms Kang also noted that the joint cooperation agreement contained a clause that other investors have to be notified of transfers of shares.

She asked Mr Chua if he agreed that the transfer of his shares to Ms Lee, without Mr Ren being informed, amounted to a breach of the agreement.

Mr Chua replied that this particular clause contradicted another clause in the agreement.

When Ms Kang asked if he had read the terms before he signed the document, Mr Chua likened the agreement to a memorandum of understanding, which is not legally binding.

When the lawyer pressed him further, he said: “I feel that by signing the document, everyone can move on. The final goal is to do business well.”

The witness to the signing of the share transfer agreement between Mr Chua and Ms Lee is slated to take the stand when the trial continues on Jan 10.