Chee told them he couldn't be present in person because bankrupted by Goh and the Lees.

But his audience should know that being bankrupt by itself did not keep him from leaving for overseas. He could not go because permission to leave was denied him. And the denial, if proper by law, was to protect his creditors.

And as there was surely no good reason to fear he would not return, and expenses of the trip were to be paid for by the IBA, his audience might want to wonder why the ban on his travel, and then also, why the lawsuits that bankrupted him. Only, as Goh and the Lees claimed, to protect their personal integrity?