Singapore seeks 40 years in jail for stock market manipulator John Soh, responsible for RM38bil in losses

John-Soh

SINGAPORE, Nov 5 (Bloomberg): Singapore prosecutors are seeking a 40-year jail sentence for John Soh Chee Wen for his role in the financial centre’s biggest case of stock market manipulation that caused almost US$8 billion (RM38 billion) in losses in 2013, the Straits Times reported.

Prosecutors are also seeking a 19 and a half-years jail term for his ex-girlfriend, Quah Su-Ling.

The pair were convicted on all 10 charges of market manipulation brought against them under the Securities and Futures Act.

They were found to have manipulated the share prices of Blumont Group, Asiasons Capital and LionGold between August 2012 and October 2013, through a web of 187 trading accounts held with 20 financial institutions in the names of 58 individuals and companies, the report said.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Nicholas Tan told the court there was a criminal organization involving more than 50 people, including chief executive officers and high-net-worth individuals that commanded more than half a billion dollars of funding deployed to manipulate the stock market, the Straits Times reported. - Bloomberg