Singapore prosecutors have asked for Malaysian businessman John Soh Chee Wen to be sentenced to 40 years in jail for masterminding one of the island republic’s biggest stock market manipulations.
A sentence of 19 1/2 years has been sought for his co-mastermind Quah Su-Ling, because Soh was said to be the “more culpable” of the two.
The duo were found to have manipulated the share prices of Blumont Group, Asiasons Capital and Lion-Gold Corp — collectively known as BAL — between August 2012 and October 2013 and in the process wiped out nearly S$8 billion (RM27 billion) in the market capitalisation at the end of their spree.
According to a report in The Straits Times of Singapore today, the pair had been convicted on all 10 market manipulation charges under Section 197 of the Securities and Futures Act.
Deputy public prosecutor Nicholas Tan told the high court yesterday that Soh was “more culpable as this remains his scheme…his purpose”.
The scheme was woven through a web of 187 trading accounts held with 20 financial institutions in the name of 58 individuals and companies, the court was told.
Soh, 62, has been in remand since November 2016 while Quah, 57, is out on a S$4 million (RM13.5 million) bail. Quah used to serve as chief executive of Ipco (now renamed Renaissance United).
The report said that of the 180 charges on which Soh was convicted, consecutive sentences were sought for 11 of them. Three of the charges were for false trading, three for deception, two for cheating and three more for tampering.
The prosecutors asked the court to have the aggregate sentence of 40 years to be served consecutively.
The total length of imprisonment for the 11 charges is 50 years, according to the prosecutors, but given Soh’s age, it would not be a life sentence.
The prosecution said it would apply a discount of 20% or 10 years off the sentence on the “basis of totality principle”.
With a one-third remission and Soh having already served six years in prison, he would have 20 years left in prison on the date of the sentence, the prosecution added.
However, the prosecution does not plan to apply any discount for Quah given that her aggregate sentence is shorter.
The prosecution noted that Soh’s scheme involved more than 50 individuals, including CEOs and high net worth individuals, who commanded more than half a billion dollars in funding that had been used to manipulate the market, The Straits Times reported.
They said rather than just a “group of runners picked off the street”, those involved stood at the highest positions of listed companies in Singapore.
“This factored into the financial institutions’ decisions in determining how much would be lent in the accounts of these persons,” the prosecution added.
They said that when investigations started after the penny stock crash, Soh began “subverting the administration of justice”.
“Over nearly 2 1/2 years, he coordinated and shaped the evidence that he demanded key witnesses falsely provide to the authorities, using promises and threats,” the prosecution said.
The prosecution also drew comparisons with the Pan-Electric Industries and Nick Leeson cases.
In the Pan-El case of 1985 a total of S$230 million was wiped off the market capitalisation. It also forced a three-day closure of the Singapore and Malaysian stock exchanges to contain the fallout on heavily leveraged stockbroking firms.
In 1995, Barings Bank trader Leeson was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in jail for bringing down Britain’s oldest financial institution by raking up S$2.2 billion in losses. – FMT