A Singaporean logistics chief executive has failed in his legal bid to reclaim nearly S$470,000 he spent on his former romantic partner, after the High Court ruled all the expenditures were voluntary gifts, not unwritten loans as the plaintiff claimed.
Chander Agarwal, the CEO of the logistics firm, first crossed paths with Felicia Lee, a former flight attendant, on a commercial flight in 2019. The pair entered into a romantic relationship in September 2022, a connection that would unravel 15 months later in December 2023 when Agarwal grew suspicious that Lee was seeing another person.
Seeking to recoup what he claimed were unpaid interest-free loans, Agarwal launched his civil suit against Lee in March 2024. He alleged that Lee had asked him to cover a long list of costs that added up to S$468,000, equivalent to around US$369,000. The expenses included more than S$200,000 in credit card bills, S$129,000 for international travel, S$17,000 for a feng shui consultation for Lee’s home, and S$20,000 for her life insurance premiums.
Lee pushed back against the claims, arguing that every transfer and payment was a gift given freely out of Agarwal’s romantic affection for her, with no implicit or explicit agreement of repayment. In his ruling, Senior Judge Lee Seiu Kin sided firmly with the defendant.
The judge outlined that even before the pair officially began their relationship, Agarwal had established a clear pattern of lavishing expensive gifts on Lee, repeatedly reassuring her that he never expected any money to be paid back. Beyond this, the judge pointed out a critical gap in Agarwal’s case: he produced no documentary evidence to prove the transfers were loans, including no written or recorded acknowledgement from Lee that she owed him the money.
“Unfortunately, when their relationship ended on a sour note, [Agarwal] became embittered and was determined to extract a price from her,” the judge wrote in his decision. He further noted that Agarwal is a wealthy man with expensive habits, a financial status far above that of Lee. Text evidence introduced to the court also showed Lee often expressed surprise and even reluctance when Agarwal proposed purchasing high-cost items for her, the judge added.
In a memorable closing to his judgment, the judge referenced a famous line from 17th-century English playwright William Congreve’s tragic satire *The Mourning Bride*, which reads: “Heav’n has no rage, like love to hatred turn’d, nor hell a fury, like a woman scorn’d.” The judge noted the case makes clear that this bitter shift from love to hatred is not exclusive to any one gender.
This ruling is not an isolated incident in Singapore’s courts. Just over a year earlier, in early 2023, the judiciary threw out two lawsuits filed by a man named K Kawshigan against a woman who rejected his romantic advances. Kawshigan had claimed the rejection caused him more than S$3 million in damages, including compensation for emotional distress and harm to his reputation. After the suits were dismissed, the defendant, Nora Tan, launched a countersuit to recover the legal costs she incurred defending herself against what she called Kawshigan’s harassment.