Ex-Wife Gets To Keep $4m Properties On Appeal

Source : The Straits Times, Oct 26, 2007

She had earlier been awarded 35% of two apartments in Bedok

By K.C. Vijayan, Law Correspondent

AN INDONESIAN woman who was initially given 35 per cent of her ex-husband's two apartments in Bedok Court by the High Court in February will now get to keep all 100per cent instead, involving a sum of more than $4million.

This follows a Court of Appeal ruling on Wednesday which, among other things, also ordered Indonesian businessman Aspin Suryanna, 59, to hand over to Madam Alicia Tjia, 50, a Mercedes-Benz and Nissan X-trail.

The increased award came after the court heard arguments from Madam Tjia's lawyers from Harry Elias Partnership that Mr Suryanna's assets in Indonesia had not been fully accounted for and had not been included in the division of the matrimonial assets.

Besides six declared properties in Indonesia, Mr Suryanna is said to have other properties, including three warehouses in Medan and seven other units in Jakarta.

It is understood that the court viewed his assets in Indonesia as quite substantial, on which it was unable to place a dollar value.

As part of the settlement, Mr Suryanna gets to keep his assets in Indonesia, as well as shares in Japan Macro Fund valued at some $2.1million.

In addition, the court - comprising Chief Justice Chan Sek Keong, and Judges of Appeal Andrew Phang and V.K. Rajah - also lowered the lump sum maintenance award for Madam Tjia, from $800,000 to $500,000, taking into account the size of the assets now awarded to her.

Legal observers felt that the outcome was a 'win-win' for both parties - as they stood to gain from the steep rise in asset values since the earlier High Court decision in February.

The couple had been married for 27 years before they split in 2004.

Madam Tjia was a 20-year-old undergraduate when she met Mr Suryanna, who was then 29.

She dropped out to marry him a year later in August 1977, against her parents wishes.

The couple had three sons born in 1979, 1981 and 1984. Some time in 1996, she moved here to look after the children, who were studying in Singapore schools.

Her husband, a businessman selling motorcycle spare parts in Indonesia, visited her once a month but stopped doing so in June 2002.

The couple divorced on the grounds that he had deserted her for more than two years.

In arguing for an equal share of the assets, lawyers Koh Tien Hua and Tan Shin Yi, for Madam Tjia, had argued that she sacrificed her own university education on her husband's orders, and raised their three sons almost single-handedly while her former spouse was amassing his fortune.

They argued that even the High Court did not buy Mr Suryanna's claim that the numerous properties he owned in Indonesia were assigned to his creditors along with his business.

He had also emptied more than US$4million (S$5.8million) from several bank accounts before and during the proceedings, which would otherwise have been matrimonial assets.

Mr Suryanna, through lawyer Syn Kok Kay, had submitted that he was indebted to his suppliers to the tune of more than US$4million.

The money withdrawn was therefore not for his own use, but transferred directly to his suppliers.

Mr Suryanna also claimed that Madam Tjia led a lavish lifestyle, and therefore deserved a smaller maintenance claim.

Madam Tjia declined comment when contacted through her lawyers.