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[SINGAPORE] Motoring tycoon Peter Kwee has lost his lawsuit against his daughter Karen Kwee’s bankruptcy trustee and has been ordered to pay around S$195,283 in costs at the conclusion of a lawsuit that began in 2022. 

Karen Kwee was found to have both legal and beneficial ownership of the five properties that Peter Kwee contested, said a judgment issued by Justice Philip Jeyaretnam on Thursday (Mar 20). Two of the five properties are landed houses in Singapore and the remaining three are located in Australia and Canada. 

“In law, (Karen) Kwee was the beneficial owner of all the properties… They were beyond the reach of (Peter) Kwee’s creditors, a purpose of the arrangement that (Peter) Kwee expressly acknowledged in relation to the King’s Drive property,” the judge said. 

He added that he accepted Peter Kwee and his daughter spoke prior to the purchase of the properties, but the effect of the conversations was in fact that they were gifts to her.

Justice Jeyaretnam said: “The discussion that the properties were hers when he died without any need for (Peter) Kwee to make a gift of them by will to her indicated that she became the beneficial owner of the properties from the start.”