Singapore court says no to Soh’s bid to return to Malaysia
Former corporate kingpin Datuk Soh Chee Wen failed in his
bid to return to Malaysia and the prosecution contended that charges may be
brought against him in relation to the “penny stock” collapse that happened in
October 2013.
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Kathleen Ann Kili, The Star Online
28 January 2016
Former corporate kingpin Datuk Soh Chee Wen failed in his bid to return to Malaysia and the prosecution contended that charges may be brought against him in relation to the “penny stock” collapse that happened in October 2013.
Singapore’s Court of Appeal yesterday turned down an application that his police bail be amended to allow him to travel to Malaysia between Feb 6 and Feb 23 to visit his ailing mother and attend his son’s wedding over the Chinese New Year period.
The authorities in Singapore has impounded Soh’s passport after he was enlisted to assist into investigations of the collapse of three public listed companies namely Blumont Group Ltd, LionGold Corp Ltd and Asiasons Ltd that collectively lost an estimated S$8bil in market capitalisation over three days.
Singapore’s Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) started the investigations in April 2014 but so far no charges have been filed against the 57-year old Soh, who is better known as John Soh.
Investigation has been ongoing for about one year and nine months, Soh said in affidavits. He said he had given more than 800 pages in statements containing more than 3,000 questions and undergone “many statement takings that lasted 10 hours and longer”.
Soh is out on police bail of S$500,000, and has agreed, as conditions for his travel, to give his itinerary and overseas contact details and surrender his passport to the Singapore High Commission in Kuala Lumpur on his arrival.
He noted that “close cooperation between the law enforcement agencies in Singapore and Malaysia would make absconding while on bail an extremely foolish decision”.
Soh said he had “no intention of leaving Singapore and Malaysia ... to escape these investigations and the consequences”, adding that he had been serving as chief operations officer and acting chief executive of Dongshan Group, while helping the CAD. He said he had committed to helping turn around Dongshan, a delisted Singapore firm in distress.
Soh’s lawyer, Tan Chee Meng told the Court that Soh had made numerous requests to be allowed to travel, all of which were squarely denied by the CAD.
Tan pleaded for the court allow Soh to return on grounds that he had been fully co-operative with the CAD’s investigations since it commenced close to two years now.
“In or around November 2014, the CAD agreed to grant John’s request to travel on the condition to an inordinately high sum of bail posted, but revoked at the last minute when John, who has been declared bankrupt, was able to secure the necessary surety,” he said.
But public prosecutor Gordon Ooh argued that CAD had strong evidence and described Soh as the “mastermind” of the crash and that charges would be raised as soon as investigations were completed, adding that investigations were “near the tailend” and charges may be brought by the end of the year, he added.
Judge Chao Hick Tin then rejected the appeal.