SINGAPORE, Singapore — Singapore’s High Court has rejected a business executive’s attempt to recover S$468,000 ($369,200) that he spent on his former girlfriend, finding that the payments were gifts rather than loans.
In a written judgment released on Wednesday, September 9, 2026, Senior Judge Lee Seiu Kin ruled that Chander Agarwal had voluntarily provided most of the disputed money to Felicia Lee without establishing that she was required to repay him.
The judge said Agarwal had repeatedly offered Lee expensive gifts before and during their relationship and had assured her that he did not expect reimbursement.
Agarwal, the chief executive of a logistics company, met Lee, a former flight attendant, aboard a flight in 2019.
They began a romantic relationship in September 2022 and separated in December 2023 after Agarwal suspected that she was involved with another man.
He filed the lawsuit in March 2024, alleging that Lee had asked him for a series of interest-free loans during their relationship.
The money he sought to recover included about S$206,000 in credit-card spending, S$129,000 for foreign trips, S$17,000 for a feng shui consultant engaged for Lee’s apartment and S$20,000 for her life-insurance premiums.
Lee disputed his account, arguing that the money had been given to her as expressions of affection.
The judge agreed, finding no documentary evidence that Lee had requested the payments as loans or acknowledged an obligation to return them.
Agarwal could not produce messages, receipts or other records showing that the couple had agreed on repayment terms.
Their text exchanges instead showed that Agarwal had encouraged Lee to accept his spending, the court found.
Some messages also recorded her surprise at the cost of proposed gifts and, on occasion, her reluctance to receive them.
The judge noted a substantial difference between their financial circumstances. He described Agarwal as a wealthy man with costly preferences, while Lee did not have comparable resources.
That disparity was consistent with a relationship in which Agarwal paid for expensive purchases without presenting them as debts, according to the judgment.
The court also found that his generosity predated their romance. This pattern continued after they became a couple, despite Lee’s occasional questions about whether she should repay him.
Judge Lee concluded that Agarwal’s position changed after the relationship deteriorated.
He found that the executive became resentful following the separation and then sought to impose a financial cost on his former partner.
In closing his decision, the judge cited a line from William Congreve’s play The Mourning Bride: “Heav’n has no rage, like love to hatred turn’d, nor hell a fury, like a woman scorn’d.”
He added that the emotion described by Congreve was not confined to women.
Earlier Relationship Claims Rejected
The decision followed another case in Singapore involving lawsuits brought after romantic advances were rejected.
In early 2023, K Kawshigan sought more than S$3 million from Nora Tan in two claims alleging that her rejection had caused him emotional trauma and damaged his reputation.
The courts struck out both lawsuits. Tan later filed a counterclaim seeking expenses she said she had incurred while protecting herself from Kawshigan’s alleged harassment.
