John Soh says couldn’t have masterminded Singapore penny stock crash
Malay Mail Online
30 January 2016
Malaysian businessman John Soh Chee
Wen has said it is not possible to plan for the events that led to the sudden
2013 shares crash in three listed Singaporean companies that wiped out S$8
billion (RM23.27 billion) in capital.
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Malay Mail Online
30 January 2016
KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 30 — Malaysian businessman John Soh Chee Wen has said it is not possible to plan for the events that led to the sudden 2013 shares crash in three listed Singaporean companies that wiped out S$8 billion (RM23.27 billion) in capital.
Soh was earlier this week named by Singapore’s Deputy Public Prosecutor Gordon Oh in Singapore courts as the possible “mastermind” of a false trading and market-rigging case that led to the collapse of the penny stocks in 2013.
“I don’t know whether I ought to feel flattered or insulted. It’s not humanly possible to plan all the things that happened,” Soh was quoted telling The Edge Singapore.
The claim about Soh’s role in the penny stock crash came to light at the Singapore High Court, where he had asked for his Malaysian passport to be released for a travel period between February 6 and February 23 to visit his bedridden 81-year-other mother and to go for his son’s wedding on February 20.
But the Singapore High Court this Wednesday rejected Soh’s application to get back his passport, which Singaporean authorities had withheld since April 2014.
Oh had said the investigations of the penny stock crash are at an advanced stage and charges are expected as early this September, with both Singapore’s Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) reportedly saying that Soh is a high flight risk when objecting to him leaving the country.
According to The Edge Singapore, investigators recorded 800 pages of statements from Soh over 2,000 questions related to the case.
Soh said he is motivated to continue working with investigators from CAD and wants light to be shed on the October 2013 crash of the shares of Asiasons Capital Ltd. that has been renamed Attilan Group Ltd, Blumont Group and LionGold Corp.
“The whole world wants to know what happened between Oct 1 and 7 (2013). How can such a crash happen? What caused it? Who are the beneficiaries? I sincerely want to find out,” the adviser to LionGold’s chairman was quoted saying.
Soh, who has not been charged, is reportedly not a director or staff at the three firms.
Citing court papers by CAD and MAS officers, The Edge Singapore said the extensive joint investigations saw over 70 persons being questioned and the study of close to one million transaction orders over a two-year span related to the three firms’ shares, as well as the monthly statements of over 500 trading accounts and 1,100 banking accounts.
Bloomberg had reported this Wednesday that the penny stocks’ value had shot up at least 800 per cent in the preceding nine months of a three-day crash in October 2013.
MAS capital markets’ group head Lee Boon Ngiap’s court documents objecting to Soh’s passport release reportedly said that 25 trading representatives are assisting in the probe or are believed to have participated in “an elaborate scheme” related to the case.