Malaysian Businessman Gets 36 Years In Singapore Jail For RM26 Billion Penny Stock Crash
John Soh Chee Wen, a 63-year-old prominent Malaysian businessman, is the mastermind of a scheme that led to the largest market manipulation in Singapore.
By Sadho Ram — 29 Dec 2022, 03:17 PM
John Soh Chee Wen, a Malaysian businessman who masterminded a scheme that led to SGD8 billion (RM26.32 billion) penny stock crash in Singapore, was sentenced to 36 years in jail yesterday, 28 December
Meanwhile, his ex-partner and co-conspirator, Quah Su-Ling, was given a sentence of 20 years.
The High Court battle in Singapore included 349 successful charges for which prosecutors sought a jail sentence of 40 years for Soh and 19-and-a-half years for Quah, reported New Straits Times.
Both Soh and Quah are appealing their sentences, reported The Edge.
They were found to have artificially inflated the share prices of Blumont Group, Asiasons Capital, and LionGold Corp — known collectively as BAL — between August 2012 and October 2013.
It was reported that Soh, 63, and Quah, 58, did this through 187 trading accounts that were held with 20 financial institutions in the names of 58 individuals and companies.
"A scheme of substantial scale, complexity, and sophistication"
High Court judge Hoo Sheau Peng said that the duo — "armed with a good understanding of the securities and financial markets" — tapped into their extensive connections and networks to boldly exploit the system.
"They personally minded and tended to the intricate scheme they devised on an almost daily basis for a prolonged period of 14 months, taking steps to evade detection by the authorities," CNA reported Hoo as saying.
She added that "immense harm" was caused by the penny stock crash — the largest and most serious case of market manipulation in Singapore that saw nearly RM26.32 billion in market value wiped out in October 2013 — and Soh continued to subvert justice and conceal what they had done even after the scheme failed.
"After an intensive investigation and a complex trial, I have convicted them of the majority of the multiple charges brought against them," Hoo said, adding that it was necessary and "of the utmost importance" for the substantial sentences to be imposed to capture the gravity of the pair's wrongdoing.
While Soh, who has been in remand since 2016, chose to remain remanded, Quah has been out on a RM13.16 million bail since 2017
Quah is the former chief executive officer (CEO) of Singapore Exchange(SGX)-listed IPCO International, which has now been renamed to Renaissance United.
Prior to this, a third co-accused, 59-year-old Goh Hin Calm, was sentenced to three years in jail in 2019 after pleading guilty to two charges of false trading and market rigging.
