John Soh Chee Wen (left) Quah Su-Ling. - LIANHE ZAOBAO
SINGAPORE: John Soh Chee Wen, the mastermind of Singapore’s biggest case of stock market manipulation that wiped out nearly $8 billion in market value in October 2013, on Wednesday was sentenced to 36 years in jail, while his co-conspirator Quah Su-Ling was handed 20 years.
Both are appealing their sentences.
The court case spanned a record 349 successful charges in some 200 days of trial over nearly four years.
Prosecutors had sought a jail sentence of 40 years for Soh, and 19½ years’ for his co-conspirator Quah.
The pair were found to have manipulated the share prices of Blumont Group, Asiasons Capital and LionGold Corp – known collectively as BAL – between August 2012 and October 2013, through 187 trading accounts held with 20 financial institutions in the names of 58 individuals and companies.
In issuing the sentences on Wednesday, High Court judge Hoo Sheau Peng said: “In terms of the large number of controlled accounts and intermediaries and financial institutions involved, and the substantial volume of BAL trades and high percentage of whole market’s trading volume, ... the accused are to be held responsible for most of the trades.”
In deciding Quah’s sentence, Judge Hoo said: “ In my view, there is no dispute that Quah is less culpable, and she is less involved in terms of the scheme’s conceptualisation and execution. ... As a starting point for the false trading and price manipulation charges, I will impose on Quah two-thirds of the sentence imposed on Soh.” - The Straits Times/ANN
