SINGAPORE, May 5 — Malaysians Soh Chee Wen, and Quah Su-Ling were today convicted by the Singapore High Court for market manipulation and cheating offences involving an elaborate scheme to manipulate the shares of Blumont Group Ltd, Asiasons Capital Ltd, and LionGold Corp Ltd.
In a joint statement today, the Singapore Police Force and the Monetary Authority of Singapore said their conviction follows a trial of close to 200 days.
Soh and Quah were convicted of a total of 180 and 169 charges respectively.
Both were charged on November 25, 2016, under the Securities and Futures Act and the Penal Code for their elaborate and extensive scheme to manipulate the market and prices of the three shares between August 2012 and October 2013.
Soh was also charged under the Companies Act.
The High Court found that Soh and Quah carried out their conspiracies by controlling and using 187 trading accounts which belonged to 58 individuals and corporate nominees (controlled accounts) to make thousands of manipulative trades in each of the three counters.
In particular, the statement said the trades between the controlled accounts were conducted to generate artificial liquidity and demand for these shares, to cause the share prices to rise over time, and to retain control of large amounts of shares without disclosing this to the market.
The 58 account holders had handed over control of their accounts to Soh and Quah.
“This is the largest market manipulation case in Singapore’s history,” said the statement.
During investigations, the Commercial Affairs Department and the Monetary Authority of Singapore raided over 50 locations and interviewed more than 70 persons.
The investigations covered extensive documentary evidence comprising over two million emails, half a million trade orders, and thousands of telephone records and financial statements.
Both will be sentenced at a later date, the statement said.
The third accused person, Goh Hin Calm, was earlier convicted on March 20, 2019.
Goh, who was a key accomplice of Soh and Quah, pleaded guilty to two charges under Section 197 of the Securities and Futures Act for intentionally aiding the duo to create a false appearance with respect to the market for Blumont and Asiasons shares between March 18, 2013, and October 3, 2013.
He was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, said the statement.
Four similar charges were taken into consideration for the purpose of sentencing.
— Bernama
