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The man accused of being behind the penny stock crash of 2013 was denied bail in a High Court hearing on Tuesday afternoon. John Soh Chee Wen was turned down by a lower court in an earlier bid for bail a year ago. Soh, 59, was deemed a flight risk at the time. He has been in remand since his arrest in November 2016. He faces 188 charges over his alleged involvement in market manipulation - including seven charges of witness tampering brought against him ahead of the previous bail hearing on Feb 28, 2017. Soh and his alleged co-conspirators have been accused of fixing the prices of penny stocks Blumont Group, Asiasons Capital and LionGold Corp. The ensuing crash wiped more than S$8 billion off the market. Soh has argued that being in remand has "hampered" his opportunity to prepare his defence sufficiently. But Justice Hoo Sheau Peng, in delivering her decision on Tuesday, said that she agreed with the prosecution that Soh was a flight risk and there was ...

Innopac Holdings responded late Tuesday night to queries by the Singapore Exchange (SGX) that the group is continuing to evaluate several restructuring options to improve its financial position amid uncertainty over investment outlays for a gold project and a significant portion of trade receivables that are older than three years. In response to why Innopac's S$2.41 million "trade and other receivables and prepayments" was greater than the S$102,000 in revenue recorded for the 12 months ended Dec 31, it disclosed in an ageing schedule S$2.36 million of receivables from subsidiary Dezhou Sheng Rong Gas Co and S$2,000 from Malaysian Microalgae Enterprise. The receivables attributed to Dezhou Sheng Rong have been due for more than three years. Deposits, and prepayments and advance were S$35,000 and S$16,000 respectively. As to why it invested only S$6 million of the estimated US$12.5 million required into a facility meant for microalgae cultivation and extract...

Investment holding firm Innopac Holdings is evaluating several restructuring options to improve its financial position, while awaiting a $2.41 million payment that has been outstanding for more than three years. The company supplied the information yesterday after a number of queries from the Singapore Exchange. One centred on why Innopac's $2.41 million "trade and other receivables and prepayments" were greater than the $102,000 in revenue recorded for the 12 months ended Dec 31. The firm disclosed that $2.36 million of receivables from subsidiary Dezhou Sheng Rong Gas Co have been due for more than three years. The SGX also asked why Innopac invested only $6 million of the estimated US$12.5 million (S$16.5 million) required into a facility meant for microalgae cultivation and oil extraction. The company said it had intended to raise the budgeted US$12.5 million from internal sources when it entered into the joint venture agreement in September 2015. At...

Andy Xie says the current market volatility is the result of a battle between optimistic mobile internet-led investors and monetary policy. Liquidity tightening will, however, eventually burst the bubble Stock markets have of late dropped about 10 per cent from the peak. If you think that’s bad, you ain’t seen nothing yet. What happened is small beer. A real collapse is much worse. In 1997/98, the Hang Seng Index fell by over 70 per cent in a year. The S&P 500 did something similar in 2000 and 2007. The current stock market bubble is much greater than on those three occasions. When the real crash comes, it will be worse. We live amid the greatest bubble in human history. This is the culmination of a series of successive bubbles over the past four decades, based on US dollar printing. People clearly never learn. After one bubble based on a wacky idea pops and wipes out a generation, another generation is sure to come along and embrace another bubble with a new wacky idea. ...

A shake-up has been set in motion at Ipco International, with long-time executive director Carlson Smith ousted during an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on Jan 19 requisitioned by Ipco's new investor James Blythman. Mr Blythman, an Australian who has worked in China, became a 14.24 per cent shareholder in September 2017 after putting S$1.58 million into Ipco through a placement at S$0.0018 per share. He also succeeded in appointing two new independent directors to the Ipco board on Jan 19, replacing two other independent directors who left last year. Mr Blythman himself spoke little during the EGM. When shareholders asked him to share more about his company Meridian Equities, he replied: "This is not the appropriate forum to discuss this." Instead, the man who brought thunder to the EGM was a previously unknown Malaysian shareholder, Tow Kong Liang. Half-an-hour into the EGM, after Mr Smith said he believed he was being removed because he had re...

An independent director of Innopac Holdings has resigned due to disagreements about certain claims for financial compensation after the termination of a joint venture last year. Yang Kiin tendered his resignation on Feb 1 citing differences with management and unfounded allegations of his misconduct by the board. In response to a Singapore Exchange (SGX) query over the announcement, which did not state the effective date of his resignation, Mr Yang said that he had been hindered in carrying out his duty as an independent non-executive director, and a member of the audit committee due to a lack of response to queries and documents. "I had difficulty with management in getting additional details and supporting documents on a certain project," he said. In the same response by the company, Innopac said that the differences had arisen after the firm's subsidiary terminated the joint venture agreement with RC Carbon Sdn Bhd in November last year. Mr Yang is a ...