The highest court in Singapore has reportedly ruled in favor of Las Vegas Sands Corporation by ordering a premium casino player to pay off a debt of over $2 million to its Marina Bay Sands casino.
According to a report from The Straits Times newspaper, the giant casino obtained a summary judgment against Singaporean businessman Darwin Liman last month and the 70-year-old must now honor a $1.92 million debt along with accumulated interest worth another $113,696.
Believed to be the highest single sum owed by a Marina Bay Sands patron, the amount moreover reportedly includes $6,500 in court costs and relates to a line of credit extended to the former VIP player in June of 2015 that came due around two weeks later.
The newspaper reported that Liman, who had been visiting the Marina Bay Sands since 2010, paid $50,000 in November and was subsequently given a discretionary rebate of $28,765 but still owed $1.92 million. Acting on behalf of the casino, attorney Kelvin Tan from law firm Drew And Napier applied for a summary judgment without the need for a full trial after contending that the defendant’s argument against the case amounted to no more than a bare denial.
“Where the defense amounts to nothing more than a bare denial of the claim, the defendant is not showing cause but merely challenging the plaintiff to show proof,” read a statement from Tan, citing court practice authority Jeffrey Pinsler from the National University Of Singapore.
Tan reportedly added that Liman, who once won $2.04 million at a Phnom Penh casino, had not filed any affidavit to lodge evidence of any issue that justified a trial or showed that there was a reasonably acceptable defense given the clear case of a debt.
The Straits Times reported that last year also marked the first time that a Singapore casino had sued the estate of a late patron in order to recover a debt. Kluang-based Malaysian Lee Seng Wei is said to have been advanced $150,000 in April of 2015 and Marina Bay Sands is currently seeking a High Court sanction that would allow it to serve lawsuit papers across the border on the two executors of the former player’s estate.