Soh Chee Wen to go to full trial over penny stock scheme

SINGAPORE: Malaysian businessman John Soh Chee Wen (pic) and two others have been committed to a full trial over charges of masterminding a scheme that led to the collapse of Singapore penny stocks more than four years ago.

Assistant registrar James Elisha Lee ruled that there were sufficient grounds to commit to a full trial after hearing three days of cross-examination of 13 of the prosecution's witnesses.

As per Section 181 of the Criminal Procedure code, he also offered the accused a chance to make a statement before the matter goes to trial.

“Having heard the evidence, do you wish to say anything in answer to the charge?

"You have nothing to hope from any promise of favour and nothing to fear from any threat which may have been held out to you to induce you to make any confession of your guilt,” Lee read.

However, the accused chose to remain silent and their lawyers said they would be entering a defence during the trial.

Soh faces 181 charges before the Singapore High Court of violations of the Securities and Futures Act, and was later slapped with an additional eight accusations of witness tampering.

Former IPCO International chief executive officer (CEO) Quah Su Ling and former IPCO interim CEO Goh Hin Calm were accused with him, with Quah facing 178 charges while Goh faced six charges.

They were charged with manipulating three penny stocks — LionGold Corp, Blumont Group, and Asiasons Capital (since then renamed Attilan) — back in 2013.

The meteoric surge in prices of these three stocks came to a spectacular halt in October that year, then crashed, vapourising S$8bil (RM23.6bil) worth of market value.

Though Quah's lawyer Philip Fong Yeng Fatt argued that eight of the charges should be dropped due to a lack of evidence, the court disagreed.

This means she would face the full 178 charges.

The accused appeared grim, but not surprised when the court's decision was read.

Litigation of the trial is expected to take between one and one-and-a-half years.