Photo: Bloomberg
John Soh’s stance on not giving instructions on trades in the lead up to the 2013 penny stock crash was put to the test once again on May 28, the second day of the prosecution’s cross examination.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Teo Guan Siew showed the court several instances where Soh – the alleged mastermind of the saga – had seemingly given trading instructions for trades made via an account in the name of his known associate, Peter Chen Hing Woon.
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 which has been 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.
In one instance on Apr 4 2013, Soh is seen to have received an update from William Kam – Chen’s trading representative – that 550 lots of LionGold shares were due that day.
To this Soh replied to the tune of, “…lovely, lovely, [that’s] good”.
In another instance, DPP Teo 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 said.
Agreeing, Soh responded, “I relayed an instruction to him, yes”. He added that this instruction had come earlier from either Chen himself, or his former girlfriend Ung Hooi Leng.
“I would have the benefit of an earlier conversation with either of them,” he said, when asked if he had made that decision on the spot.
When pressed on why he was the one relaying the instructions, Soh said that he had been asked by both Chen and Ung to “help look out.”
The duo had also requested for Kam to call him from time to time to get his input.
“Mr Chen asked me to lend a helping hand, so I do as best as I can if I have the time,” Soh said.
DPP Teo also brought up several instances where Soh was seen to be offering advice on trades made via accounts in the name of Goh Hin Calm.
Goh was formerly the interim CEO of IPCO International and was originally charged alongside Soh and Quah. He subsequently pleaded guilty and his testified against the duo.
Confirming vs reporting
The way Soh saw it, he was “confirming” trades in Chen’s and Goh’s accounts. “This is not reporting,” he stressed.
Reporting, said Soh, typically happens at the end of the trading or early in the morning before trading begins.
“All right, that’s your position,” DPP Teo replied.
DPP Teo then put forth to Soh several instances in his statements to the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD), where he touches on his involvement with regards to giving advice on trading activities to be done under Chen’s account.
In his first statement on Nov 19th 2014, Soh is seen to have said that he “had no involvement” in the accounts but had given advice to Chen.
“It was his own call where he put his money”.
SEE:Soh kept co-accused Quah away from share promotion activities
When probed on this, Soh said that the statements he had given should be looked at in totality for he had given more elaborative answers as investigations went on.
DPP Teo then put it to Soh that his response in his statement was somewhat different from what he had told the court.
“As the interviews progressed, my memory was jolted. If you’re trying to say that I misled the prosecution, I don’t think so,” he rebuked.
DPP Teo moved on to ask Soh on how he had the time to give inputs on Chen’s and Goh’s accounts since his days were typically overscheduled and he “didn’t even have time to update Ms Quah on what transpired”.
“It’s an ongoing process your Honour. It’s all part of the overall scheduling of the day and I make no bones about it,” he said.
One way he created time for this was through cluster calls, that were made in five to 10 minute gaps in between or just after meetings. In this time, he would return calls that had been made to him while he was occupied.
Soh also called brokers, trading representatives and “centres of influence” from time to time.
“Every broker has a different opinion, every chartist interprets charts differently,” he noted, adding that it is important to get different opinions.
Universe of possibilities
Another area that came up during Soh’s cross examination was his usage of different prepaid lines.
At one point, he noted that Chen or Ung could have used those lines, especially when they were with him.
As such, he claimed that the phones were primarily and not exclusively used by him
Soh qlso said that calls or messages could have been sent out through these lines as he had a tendency to leave his phone along with his other possessions in a meeting room, while he hopped into other rooms for discussions, or what he called "huddles”.
“Your Honour, in the universe of possibilities, it is possible,” said Soh reflectively.
DPP Teo then quizzed Soh on why he was leaving his phone arouns especially since it contained private messages that he had exchanged with Cheng Joe-Ee, his “off and on” girlfriend who had testified against him.
“I don’t think they (people) will be so crass as to look at my messages in front of me,” Soh responded.
DPP Teo went on to ask Soh why he would leave his phone lying around and run the risk of Quah seeing his exchanges with the love rival Cheng.
“That’s why when it happens your whole day’s peace gets shattered,” Soh chuckled.
He went on to say that there weren’t many secrets between him and a few people, even though he had kept some things from people, including Quah.
The trial resumes on May 31 with DPP Teo continuing with his cross examination of Soh.
