I remember the following. He was officially named the AG designate when Tan Boon Teik's impending retirement was announced. The wife in the meantime was developing a resort in Batam and the main contractor was Lee Kim Tah. Cash flow was an issue and the hunt for investors began. A complaint was lodged with AG that GK was tapping Indonesians for money. CPIB was asked to investigate as it is the usual approach. Senior civil servants receiving complaints of this nature is not uncommon and this is the common way of dealing with it.
In the course of the investigation, they found that he had approached Ng Ser Miang and told him that others had committed to the investment amounting to $3m which was not the case. I think there was 2 others. They also found that he had submitted an inflated involce for a subaru from an unknown company to obtain a car loan from the Govt. I think the subaru was used in Batam.
His wife, their architect, his law school classmate and her husband was also arrested for conspiracy to cheat.
I suspect that GK negotiated a guilty plea to both the charges and obtained the dropping of the charges for the rest.
Lee Kim Tah subsequently sued all of them and it was settled before going to court and they had to sell their assets.
Yes, I don't think it was payback by anyone. It was a simple case of people with no experience in business trying on to take on a big project.