Singapore High Court convicts two people of $6 billion for stock market manipulation – JURIST
Singapore’s High Court on Thursday convicted Malaysian businessman and wife John Soh Chee wen and Quah Su-Ling of market manipulation and cheating offenses that led to the crash of 2013. Local media said that the 2013 crash was the result of the most severe case of market manipulation in Singapore, as it wiped out over $8 billion from the Singapore Stock Market (SGX).
Chee Wen and Su-Ling carried out manipulative trades using 187 trading accounts to artificially inflate the share prices of several penny stocks, including Asiasons Capital, Blumont Group and LionGold Corp. These 3 companies had an irregular increase in shares of around 800%. over the course of 9 months, before plunging in the space of 3 days in October 2013. Right after the crash of the 3 companies, SGX’s average daily trading volume fell by more than 60% in the year after September 2013. An investor said he invested SGD 120,000 in Blumont Group just before the crash. He was left with just SGD5,850 in shares after the crash.
High Court Judge Hoo Sheau Peng sentenced Chee Wen and Su-Ling with 180 and 169 charges respectively. These charges include, but are not limited to, defrauding financial institutions to extend credit, trading accounts without consent, and creating false representation and disclosure to the public. The couple could face up to seven years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, or both for each charge under Sections 197 and 201 of the Securities and Futures Act. They could also be sentenced to imprisonment for up to 10 years and a fine, for each charge of cheating under Article 420 of the Penal Code. New charges under Singapore’s Companies Act could also face prison terms of up to seven years and a $10,000 fine.
One of their conspirators, the former acting managing director of IPCO International, Goh Hin Calm, pleaded guilty to 6 counts of forgery in 2019. The prosecutor described Hin Calm as both a “founder start-up and a financial director” of the whole program. He is currently serving his 3-year prison sentence and served as a prosecution witness for the trial of Chee Wen and Su-Ling.