Chong Jorina v Ritz Property Investimentos Imobiliarios Ltda and another

Case Significance

In Chong Jorina v Ritz Property Investimentos Imobiliarios Ltda and another [2026] SGHC 120, the General Division of the High Court (Vinodh Coomaraswamy J) heard claims arising from an investment scheme that the first defendant, Ritz Property Investimentos Imobiliarios Ltda ("Ritz Brazil"), began promoting in 2015, under which undivided fractional interests in plots of land in Brazil were sold through a chain of intermediaries to retail investors in Singapore and Taiwan. The claimant, an intermediary in that chain, alleged that after Ritz Brazil began defaulting on investor payouts in early 2018, she advanced a series of loans to Ritz Brazil totalling over $1.6m to fund the overdue payouts; the second defendant, Chong Kwai Leng Helen, was another intermediary who operated as a link above the claimant. The judgment, delivered on 2 June 2026 following a hearing over 15–17 and 22–23 April, 18 July, and 13 and 27 October 2025, addressed claims in fraudulent and negligent misrepresentation and the drawing of adverse inferences under section 116(g) of the Evidence Act 1893 (2020 Rev Ed), and cites 27 other judgments (24 from Singapore and 3 foreign) while engaging four statutes: the Civil Law Act, the Evidence Act, the Limitation Act, and the Supreme Court of Judicature Act.