WONG BEN & 4 Ors v THE WATCHFUND LIMITED & Anor

Case Significance

WONG BEN & 4 Ors v THE WATCHFUND LIMITED & Anor [2024] SGHC 110 was decided by the General Division of the High Court of Singapore on 30 April 2024, in Suit No 532 of 2021, with Teh Hwee Hwee J delivering the reserved judgment after hearings in May and July 2023 and on 15 March 2024. The dispute concerned an investment scheme involving high-end luxury watches. The plaintiffs — Wong Ben, Liew Edmund Ket Vui, Wong Tim Fuk Gary, Wong Nga Kok and MCA Limited — were parties associated with Innovest Financial Group Limited, a Hong Kong-registered company providing financial advisory, asset management and succession planning services. They had entered into investment agreements with the first defendant, The WatchFund Limited, a Hong Kong-registered investment vehicle operated by its Singaporean director and second defendant, Dominic Khoo Kong Weng.

Under the agreements, the plaintiffs were to purchase a number of luxury watches from the first defendant. The catchwords record that the case engaged contract remedies including damages and specific performance, repudiatory breach, the hearsay rule on admissibility of evidence, fraudulent and negligent misrepresentation in tort, and the company law question of lifting the corporate veil. The plaintiffs were represented by Union Law LLP, with the defendants represented by Dentons Rodyk & Davidson LLP. The judgment cited the Civil Law Act and the Evidence Act.