Photo of John Soh: Bloomberg
It is the seventh and final day of his examination-in-chief by his defence counsel and John Soh – the alleged mastermind of the 2013 penny stock saga – maintained that the trades made in the lead up to the crash were not based on instructions given by him.
To illustrate this, he pointed out what he called “clear days” where there had been trading activities by the trading representatives, despite them not having communicated with Soh between 8.30am and 5.05pm.
Soh noted that there could have been calls made after 5.05pm, while calls made before 8.30am were very rare.
Meanwhile, he said there had also been days where he had communicated with the trading representatives at say 4.59pm, but a trade could have already been made way before that.
Soh and his co-accused Quah Su-Ling allegedly orchestrated Singapore’s largest share manipulation scheme between 2012 and 2013 involving three penny stocks: Blumont Group, Asiasons Capital (now Attilan Group) and LionGold.
The eventual collapse of these counters – collectively referred to as BAL – in October 2013, had wiped out some $8 billion in market value.
Some trading representatives who had taken the stand as prosecution witnesses had said that both Soh and Quah had given instructions on each of the three counters interchangeably.
“That’s not possible,” Soh told the court.
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“Two persons cannot be giving instructions on the same day on the same counter. You cannot juxtapose this in the middle of the day [or] week [because] you need to know what’s happening,” he elaborated.
The way Soh sees it, the trading representatives who had “apportioned a counter to a certain instructor”, had taken on a “fair approach”.
By this, he meant that it was “reasonable and logical” to say that instructions for some of the BAL counters had come under his purview, while the others were monitored by Quah.
This had also been the approach taken on by brokers such as Henry Tjoa and Ken Tai – who were supposedly members of Soh’s inner circle. However, Soh has been referring to them as “rogue traders” during the course of his examination-in-chief.
Soh’s defence counsel, N Sreenivasan of K&L Gates Straits Law then pressed Soh why the evidence given by the likes of Tjoa and Tai should not be believed.
“[They have said that] I give specific and direct instructions communicated through telephone calls,” he started.
However, “everyday with trade activities has to have calls, have reports,” said Soh, as he pointed out that there had been neither calls made by him nor reports given to him.
“Take the logic and truth of what they said – there are no legs to stand on,” Soh exclaimed.
“To me, people can lie, [but] mathematics, statistics, calls, cannot lie,” he said emphatically.
‘False impressions’
Soh went on to address the issue of him having created liquidity.
“There was no liquidity. The basic conspiracy [is that] we conspired to create a false impression by conspiring to create liquidity,” he said.
In an attempt to put forth a certain viewpoint to the court, Soh highlighted that Tjoa, Tai, Leroy Lau and Gabriel Gan – or the four rogues as he referred to them – were responsible for the bulk of the traded volume.
“We had no knowledge – I had no knowledge and I’m sure Su-Ling had no knowledge of how they used their accounts,” he stressed.
“If your honour believes, or if the facts believe that I had no knowledge of what the rogues were doing, and even if assume that the rest of the [traders] were non-rogue trading representatives and I was in full control, everyday there was a lot of volume,” Soh highlighted.
By non-rogue traders, he was referring to nominees of the trading accounts.
According to Soh, these nominees had put in their own money and had been paying for the activities on their own.
These individuals had also gone by, what Soh refers to as mantras.
These include: receiving direct and specific instructions everyday, “swearing” that they had given him daily reports and that communications with him were purely on business matters.
“I find this amazing. These seems to try to address some of the charges squarely in the box,” said Soh.
Soh faces 188 charges, while Quah is facing 177 charges.
“Each and every one of these trading representatives are guilty of lying to the prosecution and the court,” started Soh.
“Some of the narratives or stories floating around are just too similar to be classified as objective evidence,” he elaborated.
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Stars were aligned
Sreenivasan then asked if these individuals could have been both financially and emotionally vested.
“If it’s not their money, why would they care?,” Soh responded.
To prove this, he highlighted that Neo Kim Hock – the former executive chairman of Blumont had said that investors “should be thanking me for my foresight”.
In another instance, he pointed out the excitement seen in the messages exchanged between Peter Chen and Cheng Joe-Ee in June 2012.
“Peter’s excitement was shining through their messages,” noted Soh.
Peter Chen was the former director of business and corporate development at LionGold, while Cheng runs her own brokerage house called Altheia Capital.
The excitement had stemmed from the new vision or roadmap that Soh had come up with in 2010.
Many felt that the “stars were aligned,” Soh told the court.
This excitement saw several individuals sharing this roadmap with their friends, as well as calling and bugging Soh’s secretaries and his ‘Girl Friday’, as Quah was supposedly referred to.
However, Soh emphasised that he did not check in on whether the investors were buying the stocks.
“When I promote, I don’t hard sell. I don’t say, you got to buy now,” he said.
Lover and co-accused
During the course of the trial, Quah – Soh’s girlfriend and co-accused – has been referred to by several pseudonyms like Girl Friday, Towkay Neo and even Aunty.
Touching on these names, Soh said that “nobody calls her [Towkay Neo]”. “Maybe some call her Aunty jokingly or behind her back”.
Her role in Soh’s roadmap was an interested and committed investor.
It is “far removed from what the witnesses have said,” Soh added.
Some witnesses had flagged that Quah was seen with Soh at the LionGold office three out of 10 times.
“She wasn’t there all the time. She has her own career,” rebuked Soh, adding that she had come by the office sometimes to have lunch or pick Soh up at the end of the day.
“Not at all,” was Soh’s response when asked by Sreenivasan if he had given money to Quah.
“If it all, I have asked her to bridge me temporarily now and then, small sums,” he chuckled.
The court also heard recordings of calls between Gan and Nelson Fernandez – another of Soh’s contacts.
“There will definitely be a charge and people will kenna (or get) charged,” Gan is heard saying.
Gan’s prediction was that Goh Hin Calm will be charged. Goh was formerly the interim CEO of IPCO International and was originally charged alongside Soh and Quah. He subsequently pleaded guilty and has testified against the duo.
“I had no idea,” Soh responded, when asked by Sreenivasan if he had any knowledge of Gan’s theory.
Quah was the next person, Gan thought will be charged. "Su-Ling will kenna la," he is heard saying.
The way Soh saw it, this was Gan’s way to “bait Nelson to say something bad about me”.
The trial resumes on May 25 with Quah’s cross examination of Soh.
