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SINGAPORE (Oct 31): The prosecution in the trial of alleged 2013 penny stock crash masterminds John Soh Chee Wen and Quah Su-Ling has made applications to cross examine former Phillip Securities remisier Joe Tiong Sing Fatt as a “hostile witness”. A hostile witness is one who deviates from prior statements made to law enforcement officers and gives evidence favouring the accused persons. Taking the stand this week, Tiong had proven to have been an uncooperative witness. Justice Hoo Sheau Peng has approved the application. However, Hoo said she would rule only at the end of the trial whether to allow the prosecution’s other application, which was to impeach Tiong’s credibility as a witness. Tiong is the final witness in this second tranche of the trial. The third tranche of the trial is expected to commence on Jan 2, 2020. More ties revealed In response to questions from deputy public prosecutor Nicholas Tan, Tiong on Thursday continued to give vague answer...

SINGAPORE (Oct 30): Joe Tiong Sing Fatt, a witness in the trial of alleged 2013 penny stock crash masterminds John Soh Chee Wen and Quah Su-Ling, in court on Wednesday was caught making a series of contradictory statements. The former Phillip Securities remisier had told the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) that he had only met Quah once before, at a corporate function. However, Tiong had in court also revealed that he met Quah at a meeting at LionGold Corp – one of the three counters at the centre of the alleged penny stock manipulation scheme. Grilled by deputy public prosecutor Nicholas Tan on the inconsistency in his statements, Tiong told the court that he may have missed out on details in the statement due to “undue stress” which “may have affected” his memory. “I guess I’ve never taken a statement like this before, and the stress must have gotten to me,” said Tiong. The prosecution also called out several other statements that Tiong made in court as fals...

SINGAPORE (Oct 29): Adeline Cheng Jo-Ee, the ex-girlfriend of alleged 2013 penny stock crash mastermind John Soh Chee Wen, would often take “extreme actions” against people she dislikes or felt betrayed her, prosecution witness Ivy Tan Ai Bee reveal in court on Tuesday. “[Cheng] always threatened to give people legal letters,” Tan said under cross-examination by Philip Fong, managing director of Eversheds Harry Elias. Fong is the lawyer for Quah Su-Ling, Soh’s alleged co-conspirator and romantic partner. Tan, who earlier admitted to being Cheng’s “personal assistant cum general manager” at Alethia Asset Management, said she had left the company on bad terms with Cheng. According to Fong, Cheng had made false allegations against Tan, such as resigning without notice. She had also made these allegations to the police, Fong said. Cheng had even sent a lawyer letter to Tan for the alleged breach of her terms of employment. Tan also revealed that Cheng was jealous of Q...

SINGAPORE (Oct 25): The defence counsels for John Soh Chee Wen and Quah Su-Ling, the alleged masterminds behind the 2013 penny stock crash, in court on Friday sought to suggest that prosecution witness Ivy Tan Ai Bee was more than just a “personal assistant” to Soh’s former romantic partner. Tan is described as the PA to Adeline Cheng Jo-Ee, the ex-girlfriend of Soh and owner of Alethia Asset Management. Starting as a teller at the now-defunct Overseas Union Bank, Tan had worked her way up to later become an assistant vice president at Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation, where she met Cheng. Tan had told the court on Thursday that she believed Cheng was asked to leave HSBC because of “performance issues”. Cheng later contacted Tan to work in Alethia as her personal assistant, she said. However, the court heard that Tan was appointed as a director of Alethia soon after joining the company. Under cross-examination by Soh’s lawyer, senior counsel N Sreenivasan of...

SINGAPORE (Oct 24): The former personal assistant to Adeline Cheng Jo-Ee, the former romantic partner of alleged 2013 penny stock crash mastermind John Soh Chee Wen, revealed in court on Thursday that she had suspected that Cheng’s company was involved in the manipulation on stocks. Prosecution witness Tan Ai Bee (main image), also known as Ivy, testified that she had worked with Cheng in her company, Alethia Asset Management – a small scale asset management firm. Tan told the court that she met Cheng at HSBC Private Bank, adding that she believed Cheng was asked to leave the bank because of “performance issues”. Cheng later contacted Tan to work in Alethia. Tan also revealed that she believed Cheng had difficulties obtaining her representative license. Soon after joining the company, Tan was appointed as a director of Altheia. According to Tan, Cheng told her that this was because the firm required at least two directors with relevant experience in order to obtain th...

SINGAPORE (Oct 22): Maybank Kim Eng Securities did not conduct internal investigations into accounts under broker Ong Kah Chye, even after receiving probes from the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), a representative of the brokerage admitted in court on Tuesday. These accounts under Ong are believed to have been part of a web of trading accounts used by alleged masterminds John Soh Chee Wen and Quah Su-Ling to manipulate shares in Blumont Group, LionGold Corp and Asiasons Capital (now Attilan Group) in the 2013 penny stock crash. Prosecution witness Kwek Thiam Buck, head of the retail brokerage trade support department at MBKE, said under cross-examination on Tuesday that the brokerage firm only knew of the severity of Ong’s involvement upon hearing from state prosecutors. “There was no basis to investigate until or unless we have evidence that the account was in misuse,” Kwek said. As head of MBKE’s client services margin ...

SINGAPORE (Oct 21): A representative from Singapore Telecommunications has revealed that calls made through Malaysian phone numbers to Singapore are “traceable”. Testifying at the trial of John Soh Chee Wen and Quah Su-Ling, the alleged masterminds behind the 2013 penny stock crash, prosecution witness Yeo Poh Meng shed light on the traceability of foreign calls made on Singtel’s network. As Singtel’s Customer Service Executive Officer – a role she has held for more than 10 years – Yeo is responsible for responding to requests for call screenings and call tracings from law enforcement agencies. In her conditioned statement, Yeo said she received requests from the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to screen certain phone numbers, individuals and entities, and furnish details of any calls and SMS messages, including both local and overseas communications. Under cross-examination by Soh’s defence counsel led by senior couns...

THE Motley Fool's impending closure has got the market abuzz with discussion about the shrinking pool of independent research, with some pondering why the investment advisory firm is regulated differently from other similar online platforms. Motley Fool had announced that it will cease operations completely on Oct 31. Under the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) regulations, it operates with a financial adviser's licence. This requires the firm to maintain a certain amount of net assets, which it says stops it from growing. Market players are saying that while compliance is necessary, Motley Fool leaving the industry comes at a time where independent research is valued. David Gerald, founder and chief executive officer of Securities Investors Association Singapore (Sias), said: "It would have been good if Motley Fool could continue, we definitely need more independent research. It is sad that the need for compliance has resulted in Motley Fool going away....

SINGAPORE (Oct 11): Prosecution witness Chiam May Ling, the former human resource officer at IPCO International, has revealed that alleged 2013 penny stock crash co-conspirator Quah Su-Ling was seldom at the IPCO office, despite being its then chief executive. In court on Oct 10, Chiam and another witness, former IPCO company driver Najib Mohamed Najib Abdul Rashid, had identified the office as an “admin centre” of sorts for the movement of funds in the scheme. Chiam had revealed that a spreadsheet of all the bank account holders’ details and the cheques issued, along with the cheque books, were kept in a safe in IPCO’s office. Chiam added that she Goh Hin Calm, the former interim CEO of IPCO, had maintained and updated the spreadsheet whenever cheques were issued from these accounts. See: IPCO office was 'admin centre' for penny stock scandal, witness reveals Goh has been described as the “treasurer” for alleged masterminds Quah and John Soh Chee Wen in t...

SINGAPORE (Oct 10): A witness in the trial of John Soh Chee Wen and Quah Su-Ling – the alleged masterminds of the 2013 penny stock crash – has revealed that the office of IPCO International appeared to be a sort of “administration centre” for the movement of funds in the scheme. Najib Mohamed Najib Abdul Rashid, who was IPCO’s company driver, told the court on Oct 10 that he would cash out cheques made to his name from either Goh Hin Calm or Chiam May Ling (pictured above). Goh is the former interim CEO of IPCO, while Chiam was the company’s human resource officer. One such cheque, dated October 2, 2012, was for $140,000 for which Najib was the cheque payee. “I was the cheque payee and the cheque was not crossed. The cheque was issued from a UOB bank account belonging to [Goh Hin Calm]. I recall receiving such cheques, that is, cheques issued to me which were not crossed, on a few rare occasions,” Najib said in his conditional statement. From time to time, Najib w...

THE Singapore Exchange (SGX) has rejected Renaissance United's reworked application to issue shares at a revised price of S$0.0011 per share that would have netted the firm about S$1.4 million. The company, the former IPCO International and one of the counters linked to the penny stock crash, had previously applied for two Malaysian private investors to subscribe for 1.23 billion new shares in the company at about S$0.0009 each. The subscription would have raised about S$1.1 million. SGX rejected the first application on the basis that "any issue of shares at or below the minimum trading price of S$0.001 would artificially inflate the company's market capitalisation", Renaissance said in its Thursday exchange filing. The revised issue price had not addressed concerns about the possible artificial inflation of the company's market value, SGX told the company in a letter on Oct 1. SGX noted that Renaissance's shares have been trading at the min...

Two men were jailed on Monday (Oct 7) for "spoofing" the Singapore derivatives market in 2015 and 2016, and providing false information to the Singapore Exchange (SGX) to cover their tracks. Spoofing typically involves an errant trader submitting orders he does not intend to fulfil before cancelling them, to create a false impression of supply and demand. Concurrently, he enters a small number of genuine orders to trade at a more favourable price. Jimmy Ng Kian Bin, 36, who was jailed for 16 weeks, was found to have placed 10,436 orders on several occasions in 2015. Of these, 9,477 were deleted entirely, the court heard, and 34 orders were partially filled before they were deleted. Erik Ng Song Hann, 49, adopted a similar method in 2016 and was sentenced to four weeks' jail on Monday. Both men were traders at Joerik Financial, where Erik Ng was also a director. Another director, Joseph Chai Ming Leong, 42, was said to have conspired with them to give fal...

THE Singapore Exchange Regulation (SGX RegCo) has rejected Innopac Holdings' request for a two-month extension to report its financial results and hold its annual general meeting (AGM) for FY2019 ended June. In a bourse filing on Saturday, Innopac said that it was notified of the rejection in a letter from SGX RegCo dated Sept 23. The company had up till Aug 31 to release its financial results and up to Oct 31 to hold its AGM. Innopac had earlier received a notice of delisting from SGX on June 4 for failing to meet criteria to exit the bourse's watchlist. The mainboard-listed company has since said that all of its finance and administrative staff, including its financial controller, have left the company after the delisting notice. Innopac, which has been named in ongoing court proceedings over the 2013 penny stock crash, is still seeking funds to engage external services to prepare its unaudited interim financial results for FY2019. "Nevertheless, the co...

THE court has sentenced a pair to four weeks and 16 weeks of imprisonment for "spoofing" in the Singapore derivatives market, and providing false information to the Singapore Exchange (SGX). Jimmy Ng Kian Bin, 36, and Erik Ng Song Hann, 49, were on Oct 7 packed off to jail to start their respective 16-week and four-week jail terms. The case for their co-accused, Joseph Chai Ming Leong, is pending. All three are Singaporeans from Joerik Financial Pte Ltd, a proprietary trading firm and a trading member of the SGX Derivatives Trading (SGX-DT). Both convicted Ngs entered and deleted a series of buy and sell orders in 2015 and 2016, inducing other market participants to enter the market in the belief that they were observing real bids and offers. Their conduct is known as spoofing, that is, when an errant trader submits fake orders, which are then rapidly cancelled, to create a false impression of supply and demand in the market for a particular security. The SG...

A witness in the trial of the alleged masterminds of the 2013 penny stocks crash, John Soh Chee Wen and Quah Su Ling, today admitted to manipulation of the stock market for his own gain. However, the witness, former broker Ken Tai Chee Ming, said he is only admitting to manipulation in order to “make him [Senior Counsel N. Sreenivasan] happy” after a protracted and frustrating back-and-forth that ended only when Justice Hoo Sheau Ping intervened. Tai, who was once part of Soh’s “inner circle” of brokers and remisiers, was first asked by Sreenivasan if he had ever used the proxy accounts allegedly linked to Soh to carry out a pattern of trading which would benefit his own accounts. Tai was silent for a while as he stared at the screen before him, appearing to be thinking about his answer until Hoo prompted him. When he finally spoke, he crossed his arms and said, “I may have, because some trades belong to me.” Sreenivasan clarified that his question was not if Tai had “acc...

John Soh Chee Wen, alleged mastermind of the 2013 penny stock crash, was a boss who did not treat closest members of his market-rolling gang well. This was revealed in court on Thursday as the prosecution finished up its examination-in-chief of prosecution witness Ken Tai Chee Ming, who was once part of Soh’s “inner circle”. In one instance, Tai revealed how some $40 million from an acquisition deal of Sino Construction -- one he helped Soh broker with Edward Lee Ewe Ming -- had been transferred to another account belonging to the mother of Soh’s alleged co-conspirator and girlfriend Quah Su-Ling. Tai had been informed of this by the then chairman of Sino Construction, Andy Chee. Chee told Tai that Soh had a habit of pushing the blame to his guys, causing them to declare bankruptcy. Soh would also “drip feed” his guys to keep them loyal. Tai also learnt how Soh had unfriended Dick Gwee Yow Pin, who had taken the bullet for Soh after the Mid-Continental scandal. Gwee w...