PETALING JAYA: Malaysian businessman John Soh Chee Wen has been sentenced to 36 years in jail in Singapore for masterminding the republic’s biggest stock market manipulation.
According to a report in The Straits Times, his co-conspirator, Quah Su-Ling, was handed a 20-year sentence.
They were found to have manipulated the share prices of Blumont Group, Asiasons Capital and Lion-Gold Corp – collectively known as BAL – between August 2012 and October 2013, and in the process, wiped out nearly S$8 billion (RM27 billion) of the market’s capitalisation.
Both are appealing against their sentences.
Soh was convicted on several charges, including for market manipulation, false trading, deception, cheating and tampering.
Today’s sentencing brought the case to a close after nearly four years that spanned 349 successful charges in some 200 days of trial.
Prosecutors had sought a jail sentence of 40 years for Soh, who was convicted on 180 charges, and 19-and-a-half years for Quah, who was convicted on 169 charges.
Soh, 63, has been remanded since 2016, while Quah, 58, the former chief executive of Ipco (now renamed Renaissance United), is out on bail of S$4 million (RM13 million).
A previous report in The Straits Times quoted the prosecution as saying Soh’s scheme involved more than 50 individuals, including CEOs and high net worth individuals, who commanded more than half a billion dollars in funding that had been used to manipulate the market. - FMT
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