The guy who had been filmed on camera goading a taxi driver, calling him a 'chao ah gua' (sissy) and openly flaunted his own wealth (by flashing 20 pieces of $1000 notes) has finally been identified. He has also issued an apology for his behaviour.

According to a Chinese language report in Shin Min Daily News (SMDN), the man in the spotlight is Lim Kian Liang, the boss of Yeo Keng Nam Traditional Hainanese Chicken Rice. The taxi driver was identified as a Mr Sun.

Sun told SMDN that he had ferried Lim and an unidentified female companion from Clark Quay to Potong Pasir. Throughout the ride, both Lim and his female companion were arguing.

At Potong Pasir, Lim demanded that Sun dropped him off in from of the former's BMW. When Sun asked for the taxi fare, Lim reportedly flared up and shouted,"You want money? Is $1000 enough? How about $30,000?"

Lim then tried to pay Sun the taxi fare amount of $12.45 with a $1000 note. When Sun refused to accept the note and asked that Lim get some smaller change from his car, Lim took out two $10 notes and threw them at the taxi driver. Lim also continued to berate and belittle the taxi driver as captured in the video clip that has since went viral online.

When interviewed by SMDN, Sun said that taxi drivers are people who put in effort in doing honest work and Lim's words not only belittled him, but the entire taxi industry.

Just wanted to "hao lian"

In response to SMDN's queries, Lim admitted that he was drunk at the time of incident, and insisted that he did not mean to belittle taxi drivers and wanted to issue an apology via the newspaper.

Lim said that he had been very stressed lately, and was quite shocked by his behaviour which he claimed he could not remember much of.

"I drank too much that day and had no recollection about what happened. Actually I take taxis quite often and usually am able to connect well with taxi drivers. I really didn't mean to offend the taxi industry."

He claimed that he was carrying the $1000 notes as he was going to pay his suppliers. "The money was in my pocket, hence I just took it out to 'hao lian' (act cocky)."

Business affected

After the Internet managed to dig up Lim's identity and business, Lim's chicken rice business has been receiving countless harassment calls from the public, including threats, forcing the business to lodge a police report.

A SMDN reporter who went down to Yeo Keng Nam Traditional Hainanese Chicken Rice reported that within the span of half an hour, the shop received about five to six calls, including one which threatened to close down the business in one day.

Online, the Yeo Keng Nam Traditional Hainanese Chicken Rice Facebook page has been swarmed with comments calling netizens to boycott the business and even issuing one-star reviews.

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