NOC Sends Lawyer’s Letter to IG Account That Published Leaked Sylvia Chan’s Texts

Something is brewing in Yishun, and it has nothing to do with cats.

Over in the NOC office, many things appear to have been happening in the last 24 hours: after the leaked texts of CEO Sylvia Chan went viral over the weekend, the company posted a statement last evening, stating that the texts were “cherry-picked” to paint a negative image, and the purpose was to “harm the good name of NOC”.

They also added that their “lawyers are reviewing the matter,” and they will “pursue our legal avenues to achieve justice for our NOC team.”

Well, within a few hours, shots were fired.

NOC Sends Lawyer’s Letter to IG Account That Published Leaked Sylvia Chan’s Texts

Lest you’re not aware, it all started from an Instagram account, sgcickenrice. While the IG account states that it’s a “Food Stand”, it has nothing to do with the national dish; instead, it was just created early this month solely to leak the texts from Sylvia.

If you’ve seen the texts from TikTok, they’re repurposed from sgcickenrice.

Last night, after NOC released their statement, sgcickenrice removed all contents from its account and uploaded a lawyer’s letter, saying, “We have received a lawyer’s letter.”

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Sgcickenrice (@sgcickenrice)

The letter was addressed to the “Holder and User(s) of Instagram Account @sgcickenrice”, and the law firm is representing NOC and Sylvia Chan.

Now, before you go, “Oh, sue liao,” hold your horses; read on because a lawyer’s letter is…a lawyer’s letter and not a lawsuit. Yet.

In the letter, it’s alleged that the sgcickenrice has caused “harassment, alarm and distress to many, a disruption to our Clients’ business and the loss of our Clients’ sponsors.”

It’s not a demand letter for compensation (for that ah, by right need to prove the damages one leh), but a cease and desist letter: in other words, a request for sgcickenrice to remove the contents and not to post any further contents pertaining to this incident.

Sgcickenrice is required to do that by 10am today (12 October).

For your information, the deadline seems tight but usually, when faced with such a tight deadline, the person receiving such letter will request for an extension because the person’s lawyer need to get instructions—it takes time to understand and resolve a dispute, right?

Interestingly, sgcickenrice appears to have removed all the contents yesterday, but today, one of the contents is back online.

Image: Instagram (@sgcickenrice)

The IG account initially stated in an IG Story that they can’t set up a GoFundMe because they’re anonymous, and then requested for help.

Image: Instagram (@sgcickenrice)

In the last update, they said that they’re in the midst of consulting legal advice.

Image: Instagram (@sgcickenrice)

Which begs the question: Is a lawsuit brewing?

Lawyer’s Letter Vs Writ of Summons

To simplify things, imagine this: you’re in primary school, and your name is Peter while your friend’s name is Mary.

Mary owes you $10, so in order to get back the $10, what do you do?

You’d ask for it, right? But hey: no one knows you’ve asked for it if you just speak to her verbally. You need it in black and white, so you write a letter to Mary, saying that if she doesn’t return you the $10, you’ll tell the teacher.

But you know Mary won’t care less about your threat, so you get your parents to write a letter instead.

If Mary has received the letter and still refused to return the money, you can tell your teacher about it. Of course, the teacher is going to say, “Oei, did you try asking the money back from Mary before looking for me, you f***face?”

You then show the teacher the letter that your parents wrote.

The teacher will then say, “Okay, let’s try to solve this now.”

So you just need to think of it this way: the letter written by your parents is the “lawyer’s letter”, which is to prove that you’ve tried to settle the dispute amicably. If that doesn’t work out, you can then look for the teacher: that is when you file a lawsuit, whereby a lot of work has to be done for a document called a Writ of Summons, the real papers that’s the start of a lawsuit.

And that document must reach a human being, and not some food without a name.

In other words, despite how scary it looks, many disputes are usually solved by merely lawyers’ letter without the need for a lawsuit, for it’s much cheaper.

Do note that this is a very simplified way of showing you how civil litigation works: if you need advice, seek help from a law firm instead.

Ryan Tan: Not Involved in NOC’s Management.

In an IG Story, Ryan, the co-founder and Sylvia’s ex-husband, said that since earlier this year, he has not been involved in the management of the company.

Image: Instagram (@ryanxgo)

According to a reply to TODAYonline, he said that he’s resigned as its director, but the company is still “formalising his resignation.”

To know more about what bosses can’t do to employees, watch this video to the end (yes, scolding is…okay, of course):

Read Also:

Featured Image: YouTube (Night Owl Cinematics) & Instagram (@sgcickenrice)