Photo of Quah Su-Ling: Albert Chua/The Edge Singapore
Quah Su-Ling – the co-accused in the 2013 penny stock crash – is of the view that the allegations on her involvement in the saga is based on a conspiracy theory.
“I want to put on record [that] this is a conspiracy theory,” she told the court on May 25, as she kicked off her cross-examination of John Soh, her boyfriend and the alleged mastermind of the saga.
“I’m not sure if it’s the DPPs’ (Deputy Public Prosecutor’s) case that it is because of my relationship with John that I am a conspirator,” she elaborated.
The court had previously heard that Soh and Quah had met sometime between 2001 and 2002 when they were introduced by her distant cousin. Their relationship turned intimate around end 2012 to 2013, after Soh’s wife had passed on.
What Quah was referring to is a conspiracy charge which is said to occur when two people are seen to have an agreement as well as an intent to act on a common objective and purpose
The common purpose that Soh and Quah allegedly shared was orchestrating Singapore’s largest share manipulation scheme between 2012 and 2013, involving three penny stocks: Blumont, Asiasons Capital (now Attilan Group) and LionGold.
The eventual collapse of these counters – collectively referred to as BAL – in October 2013 had wiped out $8 billion in market value.
Quah went on to ask Soh if they ever had an agreement or plan of some sorts to manipulate the market.
“We have never discussed any of this because there was no such plan in the first place,” he rebuked.
In fact, he added that Quah had not even been present for meetings at the LionGold office – unlike what was said by some of the trading representatives and their close associates who had taken the stand as prosecution witnesses.
“I wanted to keep the meeting focused on the subject matter and I found that sometimes Quah was a bit too emotional. Her expression sometimes was either emotional or cynical so I preferred sometimes not to deal with that,” Soh elaborated.
He also flagged that Quah had not been involved in his promotion of deals to the likes of Neo Kim Hock and James Hong who were part of Blumont. Neo was formerly executive chairman while Hong was executive director.
“Sometimes, it’s easier to deal with men and all the men talk,” Soh reasoned.
“So sometimes, I would exclude the ladies, especially when we got closer because it would get more delicate when discussing issues that were sensitive,” he elaborated.
However, given his close relationship with Quah, Soh acknowledged that he may have casually spoken to her on what he had done with LionGold.
“There may have been casual remarks [but] I don’t think I would have updated anyone other than you and Tun Daim,” he said, referring to Malaysia’s former finance minister Abdul Daim bin Zainuddin, whom Soh said earlier was the person who got him interested in the mining business.
“My days are always overscheduled, there is very little time to be updating anybody including you,” he added.
“No,” was Soh’s response when Quah moved on to ask him if she had controlled Hong’s accounts under Goldman Sachs.
Similarly, “no” was also his response on whether he had been involved in the business of IPCO International – which Quah was formerly the CEO of.
Soh recalls his involvement being limited to introducing business opportunities.
However, he could not remember if he had a part to play in helping IPCO with its fundraising activities.
Even so, he stressed that IPCO was not the only company that he had helped to raise funds. This is, as he was, what he calls the “go-to person” for placement activities.
“I have been asked to help in placements every year in and out because I have friends who are high-net worth individuals,” he explained.
Soh’s response was similar when asked if he recalls bringing deals to IPCO.
“I cannot remember, but I would have brought deals to everybody,” he told the court.
In any case, he noted that he had never attended board meetings, annual general meetings or even been a proxy for anybody at IPCO.
4th Oct 2013: A horrible day
Quah went on to press Soh on the events that happened on the day of the crash as well her presence if there had been any meeting of sorts as had been suggested by several prosecution witnesses.
One such recount was given by Ken Tai – a member of Soh’s inner circle – who had said that he had gathered in the Dubai Room at the LionGold office in the morning of the crash along with Soh, Quah and other close associates like Henry Tjoa, Gabriel Gan and Dick Gwee.
In another instance, Tjoa recalled having gone to a room below LionGold’s office in the afternoon of the crash, to meet Soh, Quah, Gwee, Gan and Tai.
Quah put forth that she had not been present for any of the discussions on that day.
“You were not there,” Soh agreed.
“At that time, after my private discussions, I would have been swarmed with people like Peter Chen. I’m not sure if people like Dick Gwee would have come there but no, you were not there,” he recounted. Peter Chen was the former director of business and corporate development at LionGold.
Quah then probed Soh on whether he remembered what kind of day she was having.
“I cannot remember, but it was a horrible day for everyone in our own respective spheres,” Soh replied.
Drawing reference to evidence given by some of the prosecution witnesses, Quah noted that Soh had identified her as someone who would probably be charged, due to the saga.
“Do you think I was doing (something) illegal,” she asked Soh.
“Of course not,” he replied, emphatically, adding that he had made such a statement because of the way in which the questions were angled during the investigations by the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD).
SEE:Richard Chan, John Soh's blue-eyed boy, ends up saddled with $1.1 mil in trading losses
A lack of finesse?
During the course of the trial, Quah has been referred to by several pseudonyms like Girl Friday, Towkay Neo and even Aunty.
Aunty, a rather disparaging term for an older person, was how Cheng Joe-Ee had occasionally referred to her. In other situations she had referred to Quah as ‘Girl Friday’. Cheng runs her own financial services firm called Altheia Capital and was also one of Soh’s girlfriends.
Touching on these names, Quah asked Soh if Cheng had referred to her as ‘Girl Friday’ because she didn’t have the finesse or knowledge on investment banking.
“She wanted to elevate herself from the Girl Friday status,” Soh said, referring to Cheng.
“In the beginning, she actually took it as a matter of fact that I was closer to Quah, but as it went on she set her ambitions higher and it obviously led to a lot of volatile situations,” he added.
He went on to note that Cheng was “quite good at what she does,” and had a knack for layering and choosing the right bonds.
This is quite the opposite of his first impression of her, said Soh as he acknowledged that he had not been impressed by her professionally when they first met.
“It’s because she did not act as a professional banker,” he said.
Soh’s intimate relationship with Cheng started off in end 2012 and had continued up till sometime in 2016.
In this time, he said the relationship was “off and on” with either of them walking out many times after they fought. He even told the court that Cheng had refused to return a watch of sentimental value that she had taken from him.
Quah pressed Soh on how he had appeased Cheng.
The easiest way, he responded, was to recommend as much business as he could so she was kept occupied. “At the same time, I did tell her that I’ll be disengaging from my relationship with Quah,” he added.
Quah had not been aware of Soh’s intimate relationship with Cheng, the court heard.
As such she put forth to Soh the possibility that a lot of his communications with Cheng were misrepresentations.
“I would say so – it was very focused on the roadmap for LionGold, but all I wanted was to buy peace,” he claimed.
The trial resumes on May 27 with Deputy Public Prosecutor Teo Guan Siew’s cross-examination of Soh.
