A Singaporean chief executive has failed in his bid to recover thousands of dollars that he spent on luxury gifts for his ex-girlfriend during their relationship.
Chander Agarwal sued his ex-girlfriend Felicia Lee to recover $370,000 he spent on luxury gifts from brands such as Hermes, Dior and Prada to first class flight tickets.
Mr Agarwal, who is the chief executive of listed logistics company TCI Express, met Ms Lee during a flight in 2019. Ms Lee is a former flight attendant and later worked as an insurance agent and medical sales officer, the court was told.
The pair were in a relationship from September 2022 to December 2023. The couple parted ways after Mr Agarwal suspected Ms Lee of infidelity.
Mr Agarwal filed the lawsuit in March 2024, arguing that the gifts were loans that had to be repaid.
The Singapore High Court this week dismissed the case, saying that most of the sums were gifts that Mr Agarwal had “willingly” given to Ms Lee and couldn’t be considered loans.
Mr Agarwal said he paid S$206,000 ($162,491) on credit card bills, S$129,000 ($101,754) on foreign trips, S$20,000 ($15,775) on her annual life insurance premium, a university programme and S$17,000 ($13,409)on a feng shui master to “spiritually harmonise” Ms Lee’s flat, the court heard.
Senior Judge Lee Seiu Kin said Mr Agarwal “displayed a consistent pattern of showering [Lee] with lavish gifts” even before they were involved in a romantic relationship and assured her that he did not expect repayment.
Ms Lee argued that the gifts were given to her “out of love and affection” and not as loans.
Mr Agarwal produced a handwritten agreement with both of their signature to support his claim, which Ms Lee denied signing.
The judge said Mr Agarwal’s case lacked documentary evidence as he could not produce any proof that Ms Lee had acknowledged receipt of the loans she allegedly requested.
“It is incredible that for a relationship that lasted for more than a year with so many WhatsApp messages exchanged between them, the claimant could not point to any written evidence to support his case,” the judge said.
“The evidence before me clearly shows that the claimant, smitten by the defendant, had showered her with expensive gifts during their relationship,” the judge added.
“Unfortunately, when their relationship ended on a sour note, [Mr Agarwal] became embittered and was determined to extract a price from her.”
The judge also noted that Mr Agarwal was “clearly a man of ample means who has expensive tastes”, in contrast to Ms Lee.
“It is also inherently incredible that the defendant, with her relatively modest salary, would repeatedly borrow such significant sums to spend on luxury items,” the judge added.
In the judgement, the judge quoted the famous The Mourning Bride: “Heav’n has no rage, like love to hatred turn’d, nor hell a fury, like a woman scorn’d.”
He said: “This case shows that such emotion is not the sole province of one gender.”
In 2023, another Singaporean man had filed two lawsuits to recover S$3m ($2.3m) from a woman who rejected his romantic advances, BBC reported.