KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 14 ― Two surviving children of former Johorean Goh Eng Wah who founded an entertainment empire in Singapore and died last year are battling each other in court to claim a hefty sum of his estate, a Singapore daily reported today.

The Straits Times reported that Goh Keng Beng, the third son of the founder of Eng Wah Organisation (EWO), the cinematic arm of multi-industry Eng Wah Holdings, has sued his father’s estate for S$10.6 million (RM33.01 million) of $15.75 million, allegedly owed him for losses stemming from a 2008 reverse takeover of the cinema business.

However, his younger sister Goh Min Yen has filed a countersuit demanding the return of S$5.15 million in her capacity as the executor and trustee of her father's will and estate.

According to the report, Keng Beng who was a shareholder and director of EWO’s parent company filed the suit at the Singapore High Court in June claiming his father had agreed to compensate him S$15.75 million for a business decision to transfer EWO’s assets to Eng Wah Holdings ― now known as Eng Wah Global (EW.G) ― which allegedly caused a value drop to his shares.

To support his claim, Keng Beng has pointed to a deed of settlement prepared by a lawyer and purportedly signed by his father in September 2008 in which the latter agreed to pay him $15.75 million over five years, but died before he could settle the remaining S$10.6 million.

His father and Min Yen were the only shareholders of EW.G, the report added.

Eng Wah died on September 5 last year at the age of 92, leaving his wife, two sons and two daughters. His widow, older daughter Min Lu and older son Keng Soon have since died, according to the daily.

Min Yen has refuted her older brother’s claim and rejects the deed of settlement as authentic or signed by her English-illiterate father under duress as he had not received any legal advice, The Straits Times reported, citing from court documents she filed last month.

A pre-trial conference is scheduled to take place on December 29, the report added.

The Goh patriarch started his company in 1945 screening Japanese propaganda films before growing into a leading distributor of Chinese movies from Hong Kong and Taiwan in Singapore after World War Two.

In 1994, it became the first cinema operator to be listed on the Singapore bourse as EWO.

The company grew and later became EW.G, which diversified its business interests into property leasing and retail.

In Malaysia, it currently runs The Legends Golf & Resort Sdn Bhd in Johor.