Ex-GIC vice president acquitted of murder

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NOT much is known about the bachelor-businessman who was the last to see Ms Li Hong Yan alive in March.

Attempts to contact Mr Adrian Chua Boon Chye, the 39-year-old former owner of the plush Sentosa Cove bungalow where the Chinese national was found dead, drew a blank.

Those who knew him described him as successful, happy-go-lucky and friendly.

Mr Heng Lee Seng, for example, who provides corporate services to Mr Chua's real estate investment management firm Roundhill Capital, said the businessman always shows up at Mr Heng's HLS Corporate Services in Tanjong Pagar cheerful.

Mr Chua founded Roundhill Capital in 2001 and has been its chief executive since. The company has more than US$5 billion (S$6.5 billion) in investments in Asia.

He was also a director of food and beverage company Foodbex Global between 2001 and 2006.

From 1995 to 2001, he was a vice-president in the real estate arm of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation.

As a student, he attended Raffles Institution and the former Raffles Junior College, before he enrolled to study real estate at the University of California, Berkeley, where he co-founded and became president of the Credit Union for Berkeley Students in 1995.

He also has a master's in finance from the London Business School.

Mr Chua told the court yesterday that he now lives at Jalan Lim Tai See in Bukit Timah.

When The Straits Times checked out the four-storey, semi-detached house with a rooftop pool yesterday, its curtains were drawn and all seemed quiet.

The house belongs to his parents, Mr Andy Chua and Madam Sally Lim, who own a similar house next door.

Mr Chua's maid Aye Aye Tun, 26, was seen getting out of a black BMW and entering the house yesterday.

The Myanmar national also took the stand in court yesterday. She was the one who discovered Ms Li's body in the pool at the Sentosa Cove bungalow, which has since been sold.

Neighbours at Jalan Lim Tai See said they have hardly seen Mr Chua around. One of them said the businessman was often overseas and was last spotted at home last year.

JERMYN CHOW

WHEN Li Hong Yan came to Singapore last October, she told her family back home in China's Heilongjiang province that she had got a job as a hairdresser.

They did not know that the 24-year-old worked first in an Indian restaurant before becoming a karaoke lounge hostess.

Her clients at the lounge included Mr Adrian Chua Boon Chye, 39, the chief executive of real estate investment company Roundhill Capital.

He had a multi-million-dollar home in exclusive Sentosa Cove.

He called Ms Li 'Wawa', which means 'doll' in Mandarin. He asked for her at the lounge and, on two or three occasions, took her home for sex. He would pay her $800 for the whole evening.

On March 24, Ms Li's five-month Singapore sojourn ended tragically when she was found naked and dead in the pool of Mr Chua's bungalow.

State Coroner Victor Yeo yesterday ruled that Ms Li had drowned accidentally, and there was nothing suspicious about the circumstances of her death.

While Mr Chua was asleep after sex, she left his bedroom and went to the poolside, apparently to smoke.

She then undressed and got into the water. She could not swim, it was dark, and she probably did not realise the depth of the pool - 1.5m at its deepest. It is also possible she might have slipped on the steps leading to the water.

Mr Chua gave evidence, as did his maid, and in court were Ms Li's father and two other relatives.

Last night, Mr Li Kui You, 58, a soya bean farmer, said in Mandarin that he respected the final investigation results, but wished Mr Chua had done more to 'protect' his daughter.

 

[Boliao]

I'm not surprised. This guy is well connected. What I am surprised is that some idiot handed the girl's father a $10,000 note for sympathy.

Sympathy my ass! The gal came her to prostitute herself and died by accident; partially because of her stupidity. And this stranger sympathize with that?

Why don't this fucker start handing out $10,000 to every Ah Mah and Ah Gong Singaporeans begging in the street? These old age Singaporeans who helped built this fucking nation and were abandoned by it fucking government definitely deserves more help than a FT prostitute.

Dumb ass fucker! If you're reading this, you are the stupidest fuck of 2010.

 

[KuanTi01]

Wow! Sensational.Was he charged with murder or anything at all in the 1st place? I tot he is "protected" elite or white horse pedigree. Coroner's Inquiry basically exonerated him as Wawa's death recorded only as misadventure, in this case, sex adventure went wrong! Some people merely lost some face but the biggest loss must be her loved ones.