Alleged mastermind of 2013 penny stock crash slapped with 181 charges

SINGAPORE — The alleged mastermind and accomplices behind the penny stock crash in 2013 ­­— the most serious market manipulation case in Singapore’s history — were charged in court on Friday (Nov 25) for market manipulation, false trading, cheating and other offences.

Malaysian John Soh Chee Wen, 56, faces 181 charges, the most among the three. They include 162 counts of giving instructions on various trading accounts, without the account-holders’ consent, to deceive financial institutions. Ten of the charges were for extensive market and price manipulation in publicly-listed companies such as Blumont Group, Asiasons Capital and LionGold shares.

The shares of these three firms had surged more than 800 per cent over several months before crashing by more than 90 per cent in an unexplained free fall on Oct 4, 2013. This episode had created immense market volatility and wiped out billions in market value.

Soh also faces other charges for cheating and for being involved in the management of certain corporations while being an undischarged bankrupt.

His alleged accomplice was Malaysian Quah Su-Ling, 52, who faces 178 charges. Quah, who was the director and the chief executive officer of Ipco International Ltd (Ipco) at the time of offences, faces similar charges to Soh.

Their co-accused Goh Hin Calm, 57, faces six charges for intentionally aiding Soh and Quah to create the false appearance of Blumont, Asiasons and LionGold shares between August 2012 and October 2013. At the time of the alleged offences, Goh was the senior finance and administration manager at Ipco.

In a joint statement issued on Friday, the Attorney-General’s Chambers, Commercial Affairs Department, Singapore Police Force and the Monetary Authority of Singapore said the trio’s scheme involved exploiting over 180 trading accounts, which they secretly controlled “to create an illusion of liquidity and demand for these shares ... and to control the supply of these shares available to the market so as to influence the price of these counters”.

To finance their scheme, Soh and Quah also conspired to cheat financial institutions — Goldman Sachs International and Interactive Brokers LLC — into extending more than S$170 million in credit to accounts controlled by them.

The bail amounts for the trio was an issue of contention yesterday, over the severity of the alleged offences and extent of flight risk.

The judge set Goh’s bail at S$750,000 — lower than the S$1 million sought by prosecutors — but agreed with the prosecution’s suggestion of S$4 million bail for Quah.

Soh will remain in remand as his lawyer, Senior Counsel Tan Chee Meng, sought an adjournment to take further instructions from his client.