SINGAPORE (May 6): Andy Lee Chee Wee, a former remisier at Lim & Tan Securities, could be the most interesting prosecution witness yet in the trial of John Soh Chee Wen and Quah Su-Ling, the alleged masterminds behind the steep rise and sudden collapse of Blumont Group, LionGold and Asiasons (now known as Attilan Group). For one thing, he is proving to be much more eloquent than the two prosecution witnesses who took the stand before him. More importantly, he appears to have more direct links to the locally listed companies that have been linked to Soh.
For starters, he was a secondary school classmate of Luke Ho Kee Yong, who would later become chief financial officer and, subsequently, CEO of Magnus Energy Group. He had also persuaded Ho to open an account with him at Lim & Tan, and later asked him to allow his account to be used by what he knew to be a “Malaysian syndicate”. Lee also attended a presentation on Blumont by Soh, which took place at LionGold’s offices. And, after the penny stock crash, Soh and Quah offered Lee a job at Sino Construction.
Lee says he took over more than 100 accounts in 2003 from another remisier at Lim & Tan named Thomas Chng. Among these were accounts in the name of Ooi Kwee Seah, Ong Kah Lee and Peter Chen Wing Hoon. Lee says Chng told him that these accounts belonged to a Malaysian syndicate, and that trading instructions would come from an individual named
Alice, who was a broker at UOB Kay Hian. “My understanding was that the syndicate would use these accounts to trade, and they were able to control share prices and move them up or down,” Lee said in his conditioned statement. Alice Ang Cheau Hoon, a broker at UOBKH, was earlier revealed to have given trading instructions to the first prosecution witness, Jack Ng Kit Kiat.
In 2004, with an introduction from Ang, Lee also opened accounts for an individual named Sim Chee Keong and Neo Kim Hock, who was a substantial shareholder of Blumont and would become its executive chairman. Neo’s account was transferred to another Lim & Tan remisier in May 2011, though. According to Lee, the stocks Alice instructed him to trade included Magnus, Asiasons, Blumont, LionGold, Inno-Pacific Holdings (later known as Innopac Holdings) and IPCO International, which has been renamed Renaissance United.
Lee would later begin taking trading instructions from Quah. “I met Quah together with Alice,” he said in a statement. “Alice introduced me to Quah and told me that Quah was the CEO of IPCO. Quah showed me a list of accounts and I confirmed that these were the nominee accounts with me. Quah and I also exchanged contact numbers during the meeting.” Lee added that by February 2012, as shares in Blumont, LionGold and Asiasons began a steep climb, Quah was the person giving him instructions for the nominee accounts.
‘Next Rio Tinto’
Lee claims to have been at a presentation on Blumont by John Soh in late September 2013. According to him, it was Quah who asked him to attend the presentation. Lee attended the meeting with his old school friend Ho. “We had a common understanding that we were both working for the same Malaysian syndicate, but on different sides,” Lee said in his statement. “Ho was on the corporate side, managing one of the companies the syndicate had control over, while I was on the trading side.”
At the presentation, which was held at LionGold’s offices, Ho pointed out other players in the penny stock case to Lee. Among them was Ken Tai Chee Ming, who is on the list of prosecution witnesses. “Ho also pointed out Soh’s son to me,” Lee added.
According to Lee, Soh talked about business plans for Blumont. He did not introduce himself or explain how he was related to Blumont. “I had the feeling that he did not need to because everyone present knew who he was,” Lee said. “Everyone just sat there and listened to what Soh had to say. Soh painted a very positive picture about Blumont’s future. He claimed Blumont would be the next Rio Tinto. I remember him mentioning that its share price would hit $5.”
The presentation was clearly “a sales pitch” for Blumont shares, Lee said. But Soh also mentioned LionGold and Asiasons during the meeting. “He said Blumont would be the ‘mothership’ while Asiasons and LionGold would be the ‘subsets’.”
It was not long after that, however, that all three stocks collapsed suddenly, leaving Lee and other remisiers in Soh’s orbit legally responsible for the losses under the nominee accounts they operated. Lee says he began pursuing Quah to make good on the losses, and that some of the meetings with her took place at LionGold’s offices.
Sino Con, IPCO links
Interestingly, in February 2014, during a telephone conversation with Lee, Quah mentioned an “admin manager” job opportunity at Sino Construction. “After this telephone call, I met Quah at the LionGold office to further discuss the job scope and the pay at Sino Construction. I met Quah first but Soh joined in the discussion later. The job was confirmed by them in the meeting itself,” Lee said.
To familiarise Lee with the work he would be doing at Sino Construction, Quah sent him to IPCO for a week. While he was there, he met Goh Hin Calm, who was then IPCO’s senior finance and administration manager. Goh was arrested, along with Soh and Quah, in November 2016, and charged with abetting them in their stock manipulation scheme. He pleaded guilty to two charges in March, and was sentenced to concurrent jail terms of three years for each of those charges. “I do not recall having previous dealings with Goh, but I had heard his name before from Ho,” Lee said. “I recall Ho saying that Goh was Quah’s right-hand man.”
Lee went on to say he did not actually meet anyone from Sino Construction until he turned up for work there. “I just reported to the office on the first day of work,” he said. “While I was working at Sino Construction, I saw Soh and Quah many times at the Sino Construction office. Sino Construction’s executive director, Kenneth Lim, was very friendly towards Soh and they would often meet for discussions.”
Lee worked at Sino Construction until early 2015, and it was renamed MMP Resources in August that year. He remained in touch with Quah until November 2016. “I received a telephone call from someone in [Commercial Affairs Department] advising me not to contact any of the accused persons in this case.”
What’s next?
Lee is due to continue being cross-examined by the defence on May 6, and the trial could run for several more months. During that time, other facets of the penny stock case could come to light.
Intriguingly, Lee disclosed in his statement that Ang, the UOBKH broker, did not entirely disappear from his radar after Quah began giving him instructions for the nominee accounts. According to him, Ang called him in January 2013 with instructions to sell Innopac shares for Peter Chen’s account. “Alice expressly told me not to tell Quah about the trades,” he said in his statement.
“Between January and June 2013, Alice called me several times to give trading instructions to sell huge quantities of Innopac shares using Chen’s account.” The last trading instructions Lee received from Ang for Chen’s account were on Oct 4, 2013, when she asked him to sell Blumont rights.
Chen was director of business and corporate development at LionGold at the time, and had been publicly talking about the company’s deals. He is also on the prosecution’s witness list.
