Source : INDIA TODAY NEWS
An Indian CEO spent more than USD 370,000 on his girlfriend, which included luxury items from Prada and Dior and even first-class flight tickets. After they broke a year later, he sued to recover the amount from her. But he has now lost the case, with the court ruling most of the money was spent on gifts that he did of his own volition and “out of love”.
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Chander Agarwal is the CEO and managing director of listed Indian logistics company TCI Express. He was in a relationship with Felicia Lee, whom he met during a flight in 2019, from September 2022 to December 2023. They broke up after he suspected Lee of infidelity. In March 2024, he filed a lawsuit, arguing that the gifts were loans she was indebted for.
He alleged that he paid USD 206,000 in credit card charges, USD 129,000 on foreign trips, USD 17,000 to engage a feng shui master for her flat and USD 30,000 in fees for a Stanford-NUS executive programme.
However, Senior Judge Lee Seiu Kin ruled in a written judgment that Agarwal willingly spent the money because he was in love.
Additionally, he failed to prove he had given Felicia Lee two other sums, including USD 50,000 that he claimed he lent her to clear a debt to her former employer, The Strait Times reported citing the judge.
The CEO even produced a handwritten agreement with both his and his ex-girlfriend’s signatures to back his claim. But Felicia Lee denied signing any such document.
The court heard was told that Agarwal in 2022 gave his ex-girlfriend access to his American Express card, telling her, “Anything you want.”
It also heard that when Felicia Lee previously asked how she could repay him, he replied, “No need. I am not a moneylender.”
The judge noted that Agarwal was “smitten by the defendant” when they were in a relationship and showered her with expensive gifts but became enraged when their relationship turned sour.
The judge also dismissed his claim that Felicia Lee had duped him into spending the money by falsely portraying their relationship as exclusive and genuine. The judge added that evidence about Agarwal having sexual relations with other women during his relationship with Felicia Lee makes his claim that he thought the relationship was genuine, false.
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SOURCE :- TIMES OF INDIA
