Court to decide if ex-guide gets insurance policies back

The former tour guide embroiled in a high-profile court tussle over the control of a rich widow's assets must wait longer to find out if he can dip into two insurance policies to pay for his legal fees for his ongoing court battles.

The State Court will sit again next Wednesday on whether to release two insurance policies in Yang Yin's name - which are worth about $98,000 and currently frozen by the High Court.

In April, the High Court allowed Yang, 41, to liquidate both life insurance policies to pay for his legal fees.

The policies will help cover his legal bills in a high-profile High Court suit brought against him by Chung Khin Chun, 88, through her niece Hedy Mok. Madam Mok, 61, has accused Yang of manipulating her aunt into handing over assets worth an estimated $40 million.

The policies were among Yang's assets which Madam Mok obtained a High Court order to freeze last year.

The High Court suit is set to be heard in March next year.

Madam Mok is also appealing against the High Court decision to release the insurance policies.

Even though the High Court has released the policies to Yang, he is still unable to access them yet because they were separately seized by the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) last year for criminal investigations.

A closed-door hearing at the State Court yesterday was to hear arguments from the Attorney-General's Chambers, which is representing CAD, and lawyers representing Yang and Madam Mok on whether CAD can release the insurance policies while the High Court suit is still pending.

Besides the High Court suit by Madam Mok, Yang faces more than 300 criminal charges in total, including two criminal breach of trust charges for allegedly misappropriating $1.1 million.

He has been remanded since Oct 31 last year.

tohyc@sph.com.sg

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