Soh denies giving orders; admits to weakness for 'sob stories'

For example, Soh told the court that Gabriel Gan — an ex-DMG broker who allegedly helped Soh trade — thought “my so-called presence will be a catalyst to his friends’ investing”. Soh, for the most part, reciprocated the correspondence with these “friends”.

“I relish the part where someone wants to communicate, so obviously, I would reciprocate,” said Soh during his cross-examination by Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Teo Guan Siew on May 31.

Soh and his co-accused and romantic partner Quah Su-Ling are on trial for orchestrating Singapore’s largest share manipulation scheme between 2012 and 2013 involving three penny stocks: Blumont Group, Asiasons Capital (now Attilan Group) and LionGold (renamed Shen Yao Holdings).

The eventual collapse of these counters —collectively referred to as BAL — in October 2013, wiped out some $8 billion in market value.

Informing versus reporting

While Soh claimed that his advice was sought after, he steadfastly maintains he never gave trading instructions. He was merely “confirming” trades made when shown records of messages and conversations suggesting otherwise.

This stance was put to the test between May 28 and June 2 when DPP Teo showed the court several instances where he had seemingly given trading instructions to be made via accounts of his associates such as Peter Chen Hing Woon.

On April 4, 2013, Soh received an update from William Kam — Chen’s broker — that 550 lots of LionGold shares were due that day. To this Soh replied to the tune of, “...lovely, lovely, [that’s] good”.

DPP Teo then played a recording of Soh telling Kam to “queue 9-2 to sell” Asiasons shares. “You actually gave him an instruction there, correct?” DPP Teo asked. Soh replied: “I relayed an instruction to him, yes”.

He added that this instruction had come earlier from either Chen or his former girlfriend Ung Hooi Leng, described by Soh earlier in the trial as an active trader. Soh told the court he was the one to relay these instructions because Chen and Ung had asked him to “help look out” and give his inputs from time to time.

Other than Kam, Soh had seemingly given instructions to Adeline Cheng Jo-Ee for trades to be made in the account of Neo Kim Hock. One of Soh’s close associates, Neo was formerly the executive chairman of Blumont while Cheng, who runs her own firm Alethia Asset Management, has been described as Soh’s “on again and off again girlfriend” during the trial.

In one instance, Cheng told Soh that 1.4 million LionGold shares were bought at $1.055 via an account managed by Cheng. “I will say she kept me informed of [the trade] being done, yes,” said Soh, stressing that Cheng was merely “informing” him and not “reporting”.

In another instance on Oct 10, 2012, Cheng is seen telling Soh that she’s on “standby” soon after she’s asked to “take 100 at 1.07”. Soh said Neo would have already decided on how he wanted to construct a portfolio via Cheng and as such, Soh’s role was only to assist Neo in “trying to accumulate at better prices”.

Soh added that the objective for most people who are committed to a portfolio is to try and collect and accumulate shares at better prices without running the risk of being “front-run by opportunistic private bankers”. Front running occurs when a broker trades a stock while knowing of a future transaction that could possibly affect its price substantially.

That is why Neo told Cheng: “Okay do your coordination. If John is free, get him to ad- vise you.” Even so, he stressed that Neo was the one to make the final decision. “I’m the one that guides them,” he added, referring to Cheng and Neo.

Quah’s role

Soh, facing accusations of manipulating the share prices, prefers to describe himself as a "vigorous promoter" of the stocks instead. As such, some of the advice he gave the brokers may possibly have triggered trades of the shares he promoted, specifically LionGold and Blumont.

“Blumont I did promote,” Soh agreed. “I wouldn’t say it could have been my promotions, it could have been triggers,” he added.

As for Asiasons, Soh said he did not promote that counter. As such, the trades made by Gan and his clients in that counter were from Gan’s own triggers in a bid to generate more trading commissions from his own clients who entrusted Gan with discretionary trading rights.

According to Soh, he was asked by many people if they should buy Asiasons as well.

“Many of these people are chartists. They ask [whether to buy], I say no, the counter goes up and they think I’m bluffing them,” he said. “Whether they believe that I have nothing to do with Asiasons, that’s up to them.”

While Soh tried to downplay Quah’s involvement in the dealings, DPP Teo put forth several exchanges that indicate otherwise.

For instance, at 4.11pm on Feb 8, 2013, Cheng asked Quah: “How is everything? I may be able to help out with 500k LionGold with my line if you need”.

Cheng was referring to the purchase of 500,000 shares of LionGold. A minute later, Cheng called Quah who subsequently sent Cheng a message that read: “Thanks, appreciate this”.

Soh said he cannot read into the messages but speculates that this was Cheng’s way of appeasing Neo. Credit Suisse threatened to close Neo’s account — which was managed by Cheng — and dump his shares. Cheng had subsequently offered to “warehouse” 500,000 shares elsewhere, in a bid to placate Neo.

DPP Teo suggested to Soh that it was him and not Neo whom Cheng was trying to help with the 500,000 LionGold shares. Looking baffled, Soh replied: “Why would we need 500,000 to help us? That is nonsense, that is nonsense.”

‘Sob stories’

During the cross-examination, Soh tried to portray himself as one with both the influence over his associates and network — while also having a soft spot for certain people.

For example, Soh was heard in a recording with Gan, the broker: “Don’t worry la, once money is in I will help you settle. I won’t let you go bankrupt for 100,000”.

Soh said this was after the crash, when Gan — who was suffering trading losses — had come to him with “all kinds of sob stories”. This included things like his wife wanting to divorce him and his parents going to lodge a complaint on him at DMG.

“Gan very adroitly avoided going into de- tails on how he suffered losses, playing into my vulnerabilities,” he added.

“I’ve got this weakness for sob stories,” said Soh. He then got together with Gan in hopes of making money.

The duo then devised a fund-raising deal at another listed company Sino Construction, which in 2015 was renamed MMP Resources, and delisted in April this year. They expected to pocket some $800,000 — 40% to 50% was meant for Gan for helping to place the shares.

Soh’s support for Gan came across in another message which read: “If you need I can engineer those things”. Soh said this because Gan had allegedly overspent on his credit cards and that some 10 to 20 credit card companies were supposedly coming after him and demanding payment. Gan also claimed that Singapore’s credit counselling bureau had said they would help him structure his payments if he could get two sponsors.

Soh then found a Malaysian doctor who seemingly fit the bill to be a sponsor without liability. However, this fell through as Gan needed a guarantor. “I know we have money coming in from the placements we have done under Sino Construction,” said Soh when asked why he was quite ready to go out of his way for Gan.

‘Desperate for money’

Soh told the court he prioritised paying Gan but the placement with Sino Construction ended up — in Soh’s words — being a mess, as payment was coming in dribs and drabs.

“It was like a cursed deal from the start. We went all out because we were desperate for money,” he said.

Gan, who took the stand earlier as a prosecution witness, made audio recordings of himself and Soh, which the prosecution is using as evidence of witness tampering charges against the latter.

After the Sino Construction deal fell through, Soh scoured for other opportunities such as with small Australian mining projects. His hope was to “restore” those who had suffered losses because of BAL.

When asked by DPP Teo why he bothered doing so, Soh said: “Mr Teo, sometimes, it’s about compassion”.

As for why he had taken on a responsibility to restore Gan specifically, Soh sheepishly said: “I might have said something like that in a melodramatic way”.

The trial continues with DPP Teo’s cross-examination of Soh.