A Canadian man who once earned a very high salary in Singapore has been ordered by a court to pay nearly $634,000 in maintenance to his estranged wife and their four children, according to a report from The Straits Times. The order came after the man quit his well-paying job, left Singapore, and moved back to Canada, shortly after his wife applied for financial support.
Man ordered to pay massive maintenance to estranged wife after quitting job
According to The Straits Times, the situation escalated in early 2024 when the man failed to attend a court mention in January. Soon after, an arrest warrant was issued against him. That warrant remained active for most of the year and was cancelled in December 2024, after the man finally appeared for a court mention through Zoom, along with his lawyers.
In a judgment dated December 29, 2025, District Judge Phang Hsiao Chung ordered the man to pay S$634,000 (Rs. 5.77 Crore) in maintenance. According to The Straits Times, this amount was backdated to September 2023, when the man reduced the financial support he was giving his family after moving out of the family home to live with another woman. The total covers the period from September 2023 to September 2025.
Additionally, the judge ordered the man to pay $23,500 every month in maintenance starting from October 2024, when he began working for a new employer in Canada.
Man moves out, cuts financial support to wife and children
The court observed that in 2023, while he was still employed by a multinational corporation in Singapore, his annual income exceeded S$860,000, which is roughly ₹6 crore. According to The Straits Times, court said his resignation did not wipe away his financial obligations to his wife and children.
Court records show that the couple, both Canadian citizens, moved to Singapore in December 2013 with their four children. The man worked as a senior executive in the Singapore office of a multinational firm. His wife was a homemaker living in Singapore on a dependent’s pass.
According to The Straits Times, in August 2023, the man moved out of the family home to live with another woman. She was identified as “W” in court documents, according to a Mothership report. After the separation, the man first offered to pay S$20,000 a month in maintenance, while also covering rent, school fees and school transport for the children. Later, he reduced the amount to S$11,000 a month, or about ₹7.7 lakh. The woman filed for divorce on April 16, 2024.
When the support was reduced in September 2023, the woman filed a formal application on October 2, 2023. She told the court that since her husband left the family home, he had failed to provide reasonable financial support. Just days after the maintenance application was filed, the man resigned from his Singapore job on October 9, 2023. He left Singapore in January 2024 and returned to Canada, which caused the maintenance case to stall. After failing to attend a court mention on January 31, 2024, a warrant of arrest was issued against him.
That said, the judge accepted that the man’s earnings genuinely dropped after he began working in Canada. Judge Phang found that the man’s annual income in his Canadian job, after tax deductions, came to about C$341,000, or roughly S$315,500. Because of this reduced earning power, the judge said it was reasonable for the wife to adjust her expectations.
How Singapore court calculated S$634,000 maintenance
According to The Straits Times, court found that the man failed to properly support his wife and children from September 2023, and paid nothing at all between December 2023 and March 2025.
After calculating reasonable household expenses such as rent, utilities, groceries, a domestic helper, car costs and international school fees, the judge ruled that total maintenance from September 2023 to September 2025 came to S$788,300.
Since the man had already paid S$154,383.81, the remaining S$633,916.19 was ordered to be paid as a lump sum by January 15, 2026. The man has filed an appeal against the ruling. For now, enforcement of the lump-sum payment has been put on hold until the appeal is decided.