Goh Hin Calm, who pleaded guilty to his role as “treasurer” in the penny stock manipulation ring of 2013 and is now a prosecution witness, still thinks he had done nothing wrong.
Under cross-examination by lawyer N Sreenivasan who is defending John Soh Chee Wen, the alleged ring leader, Goh told the court he pleaded guilty because the lawyers he spoke to had described his role in the case was akin to that of a driver who unknowingly ferried robbers to a bank heist.
“They said: Assume that you are the driver and somebody asked you to pick them up from Jurong to town … and they robbed UOB Bank — assume that it’s UOB Bank — and they drove off. I don’t know they actually rob the bank. But because I was involved in putting them in the car and sending them to UOB Bank, I have been indirectly involved with this case, so I’ve been prosecuted,” said Goh.
Other than Soh and co-accused Quah Su-Ling, Goh was the third person to be charged in November 2016 for their alleged involvement in the manipulation of shares in Blumont Group; Asiasons Capital, which has since been delisted; and LionGold, which was recently renamed Shen Yao Holdings.
Collectively known as BAL, it was the spectacular surge in their share prices and subsequent crash in early October 2013 that triggered an investigation that led to the arrest and prosecution of Soh, Quah and Goh. However, in March 2019, before the trial started, Goh, who was facing six charges, pleaded guilty.
From trust to betrayal
Goh, who holds a diploma in higher accounting from the London Chamber of Commerce, joined IPCO International back in 2001 as its senior finance and administrative manager. Two years later, Quah, who was originally a consultant of IPCO, joined the company as CEO.
Goh told the court he agreed to open trading accounts under his name and that of his wife, Huang Phuet Mui, as instructed by Quah as he had come to trust the latter after years of working for her. “She never betrayed us, so we actually trusted her very much. And whenever she asked us to do anything, if we could help, we helped,” he said.
Goh said the accounts were opened at numerous brokerages and designated to brokers including Gabriel Gan at AM Frasers, Jack Ng at OCBC Securities, and Phillip Securities, where Goh was told to open an account with Henry Tjoa, whom Quah said was able to arrange “generous share financing”.
Goh told the court how he would take trading instructions from Quah and then relay them to the various brokers to execute. When the orders were done, he would receive a confirmation from the brokers either through SMS or Whatsapp.
In addition to relaying instructions to trade via accounts under his own name, Goh also helped to maintain accounts opened under the names of various known associates of Soh and Quah. These included Edwin Sugiarto, Lee Chai Huat and Neo Kim Hock, who were all office bearers at various Singapore-listed entities linked to Soh.
Goh also maintained a “petty cash float” which was kept in a safe at IPCO’s office, where trading gains and losses would be held or recorded. If there was not enough cash to cover the losses, Goh would inform Quah, who would either top it up from her own personal account, transfer the money from her mother Lim Siew Hooi’s account to him, or send cheques funded by trading gains from other brokerage accounts. Other times, Goh would receive funds from individuals including Sugiarto, Lee and Neo.
Goh also implied at no time was he worried Soh and Quah would not make good for the losses when deputy public prosecutor Loh Hui Min asked him, “To the best of your knowledge, has Su-Ling or John ever refused to make payment for any of the BAL trades done in the OCBC, AmFraser, DMG, Phillip Securities or Maybank accounts?”
“No,” replied Goh.
“And have they ever, to your knowledge, disputed any of the BAL trades carried out in these accounts?”
“No,” said Goh.
When questioned further, Goh admitted he did not know why Quah and Soh were using accounts which belonged to him and his wife to trade. “Sorry, why did you agree to relay trading instructions from Su-Ling and John for these accounts?” pressed Loh.
“I trusted Su-Ling very much because she was my CEO, and I relayed messages from John because she told me John is her business consultant,” said Goh.
But Goh acknowledged the shares reflected in his wife’s and his CDP accounts did not belong to them but someone else. “I don’t have such big numbers of shares and I also don’t have the means or the cash to deposit with this trading account. When I said ‘help me to continue to invest in BAL shares’, what I meant was actually getting instructions from Madam Quah to continue to invest in BAL shares,” he clarified.
This prompted Justice Hoo Sheau Peng, who is presiding over the case, to ask Goh, “Apart from the shares being used as collateral, there were trades done actively in your accounts. Who do those trades belong to?”
“I believe these shares belong to Madam Quah or either John Soh. I really don’t know who all these shares belong to, whether they belong to actual business associates of John Soh or whoever is it. They definitely do not belong to me or my wife,” said Goh.
Spreadsheets and dumb accounts
Goh also told the court how his bank accounts were used to hold money transferred in by Soh from various sources, including overseas companies. He also kept numerous pre-signed cheque books belonging to known Soh associates including Lee, Neo, Sugiarto, Ong Kah Lee, Tan Boon Kiat and Idris Bin Abdullah. He also kept some cheque books which were pre-signed, including those belonging to Quah and her mother.
The cheques were used to withdraw money from the bank accounts of various individuals to top up trading accounts or pay for trading losses. The court was also shown massive spreadsheets kept by Goh, with more than a thousand row of entries where he noted down details of transactions including dates, volume, contra amounts, money in, money out and accounts involved.
Under Sreenivasan’s cross-examination, the court heard that the spreadsheet maintained by Goh also included records not related to share trading. These included reimbursements for medical expenses incurred by Soh’s late wife at Mount Elizabeth Hospital that were originally paid by Dick Gwee, a close associate of Soh, as well as records of loan payments for Quah’s car.
“So, would I be correct to say that basically, you are acting like some sort of cashier, collecting money and paying out money as instructed?” asked Sreenivasan.
“Yes, I’m just an administrator to Su-Ling,” replied Goh.
“So, you have kept this running balance, but you have mixed up all sorts of things in your spreadsheet, Mr Goh, agreed? You keep one single running balance. Am I right?”
“Yes.”
“You don’t have separate sub-accounts, right?”
“Yes.”
“So, all you’re doing is just accounting for cash in and cash out.”
“Yes.”
“But you are not accounting for whose money is coming in and who is it being paid out for. Agreed?”
Goh concurred, pointing out that his full-time job was to run IPCO. “I’m just helping Su-Ling, doing her a favour by keeping track of all this money, whenever the money coming in, whatever the money going out,” said Goh.
Sreenivasan then alluded to the fact that many of the associates of Quah and Soh knew one another via the Lakeview Club at Subang Jaya.
“There are two kinds of interpretation that we can put on all these connections. One is this is a whole gang of conspirators conspiring with each other. The other is this is a whole group of business associates who do things together. Okay? In the course of all your involvement, was there any point in time when you thought you were being asked to do illegal things?” said Sreenivasan.
“No,” replied Goh.
“Was there any point in time when you thought that these people whose money you were handling were getting together to commit offences or conspiring with each other?”
“No.”
“Were you told to hide any connections that you knew about these people?”
“No.”
“Were you told to hide or destroy any documents?”
“No.”
When BAL shares crashed on Oct 4, 2013, Goh told Quah and Soh about the losses in his trading account and that of his wife, hoping they would be reimbursed. “They just acknowledged it. They said ‘we’ll take care of it’,” said Goh, who added he also received calls from the brokers linked to Soh asking for payment.
While Soh did make partial payments, Goh had already lost trust in his former boss Quah and was finally ready to testify against her and Soh.
