As the family drama surrounding the late Lee Kuan Yew’s final will continues to unfold, his daughter Lee Weiling took to Facebook to make some clarifications, refuting certain claims asserted by the AGC.
In her post, Dr Lee wrote that that media reports have continued to repeat PM Lee’s false and dishonourable allegations that their brother Yang somehow ‘swindled’ their father the late LKY to get a bigger share in the final will. “This is a lie”, she wrote.
In an article by Straits Times on 9 April about the Law Society disciplinary tribunal looking into alleged wrongdoing by Mr Lee Hsien Yang’s wife, Mrs Lee Suet Fern regarding LKY’s will, it was repeated that the Attorney General’s Chamber (AGC) has said in January that Mrs Lee was in a position of conflict and had breached the rules governing the conduct of lawyers when she prepared LKY’s will.
In their report, ST said:
The Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) had in January referred the case to the LawSoc because it appeared that Mrs Lee had prepared the late Mr Lee’s last will and arranged for him to execute it in 2013. The AGC had then said this placed her in a position of conflict and was a breach of the rules governing the conduct of lawyers because her husband was a beneficiary in the will.
The share of Mr Lee Hsien Yang increased under the final will.
The AGC also noted that Mr Lee Hsien Yang had publicly said the last will was drafted by Ms Kwa Kim Li of law firm Lee & Lee. Ms Kwa had denied this.
Mr Lee Hsien Yang also said his wife never served as his father’s lawyer. Mr Lee Kuan Yew died in 2015.
The way it is written, ST doesn’t make clear whether the assertion that Mr Lee Hsien Yang’s share was increased under the final will is actually fact or is an assertion by the AGC. (Note, it was an assertion by the AGC. An assertion which Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had made in his statutory declaration in 2017 under the advice of his former lawyer, Lucien Wong who happens to be the current Attorney General).
Dr Lee, in her post, also asserted that while one will by her father in 2012 did afford her ‘a little more’ than her brothers, LKY eventually decided to revert to equal shares in 2013 for his final will.
She also supported Yang’s assertion that his wife never served as LKY’s lawyer. Dr Lee said that Kwa Kim Lee was retained as their father’s lawyer for all his will except the first will which was drafted by their mother for which she was the principal beneficiary.
This contradicts what Ms Kwa, the managing partner of the Lee&Lee law firm and niece of Mdm Kwa, had said back in 2017 to Straits Times when she admitted that the previous six versions of the will of LKY was prepared by her but not the last one.
However according to Dr Lee, Kim Li wrote to all three of siblings in Jun 2015 that LKY “was aware that it was intended/agreed that he would divide his entire Estate into 3 equal shares for the 3 children”
“The final will provided for this. Each of us received equal shares in the estate, no more, no less.”
Curiously, while Straits Time and Mediacorp sites Channel NewsAsia and Today Online have been reporting on each development of this story at every turn, all three main stream media sites neglected to include what Dr Lee said in her Facebook post.