The Singapore High Court has dismissed a lawsuit by the chief executive of Indian logistics company TCI Express, Chander Agarwal, seeking to recover $468,090 he claimed to have spent on his former girlfriend during their relationship.
In a written judgment delivered on September 9, Senior Judge Lee Seiu Kin ruled that most of the money Agarwal spent on Felicia Lee constituted gifts rather than loans.
The disputed expenses included about $206,000 in credit card charges, $129,000 on overseas trips, $17,000 paid to a feng shui master for Lee’s flat and $30,000 for a Stanford-NUS executive programme.
The judge also found that Agarwal had failed to prove he gave Lee two other sums, including $50,000 he claimed was a loan to help her settle a debt owed to a former employer.
Lee said Agarwal could not produce evidence showing that Lee had requested the money as loans or agreed to repay it.
“The evidence before me clearly shows that the claimant, smitten by the defendant, had showered her with expensive gifts during their relationship,” the judge said.
“Unfortunately, when their relationship ended on a sour note, the claimant became embittered and was determined to extract a price from her.”
The judge quoted a line from the 1697 play The Mourning Bride, which refers to love turning into hatred, before adding that the emotion was “not the sole province of one gender.”
Agarwal and Lee met on a flight in 2019 before connecting on Facebook and beginning to spend time together. They started a romantic relationship in September 2022, but separated in December 2023 after Agarwal suspected Lee of infidelity.
He filed the lawsuit in March 2024.
The court heard that Agarwal had given Lee expensive gifts even before their relationship began, including luxury items from brands such as Hermes, Louis Vuitton and Prada. He also paid most of the expenses during a European trip they took together.
In one WhatsApp exchange in May 2021, after Lee said it had been years since she last travelled by air, Agarwal told her he had already booked a first-class or suite ticket for her and could arrange a private jet if necessary.
When Lee asked in August 2022 how she could repay him, Agarwal reportedly replied, “No need. I am not a moneylender.”
After they began dating, he offered her a monthly budget of $1,500 for transport, dining and beauty expenses. He later gave her access to his American Express Centurion Card, telling her: “You don’t have a budget now. Anything you want.”
Agarwal, however, argued during the trial that expenses incurred after they began dating automatically became loans.
The judge rejected that position, describing it as contrary to common sense and unsustainable.
Agarwal also presented a handwritten agreement purportedly signed by Lee, stating that monthly sums of between $10,000 and $25,000 she received from him belonged to him.
Lee denied signing or seeing the document before the court proceedings.
The judge found the circumstances surrounding the agreement suspicious and gave limited weight to a handwriting expert’s opinion that the signature was genuine.
He noted that Agarwal had not mentioned the document in his original statement of claim and only introduced it seven months later through an amended claim.
The judge also said the document’s contents were inconsistent with the evidence, as Lee had not received a fixed monthly amount but had instead received different sums for various purposes.
In addition, a note signed by Agarwal in May 2023, promising not to seek the return of items given to Lee out of goodwill, superseded any earlier agreement, the judge ruled.
The court also dismissed Agarwal’s claim that Lee had induced him to spend the money by falsely representing that they were in a genuine, exclusive relationship and that she would repay him.
The judge said Agarwal’s conduct during the relationship appeared consistent with how he had treated Lee before they began dating.
Evidence that Agarwal had sexual relations with other women during the relationship also cast doubt on whether he personally regarded it as genuine and exclusive, the judge added.
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