The last four individuals in the group of eight who manipulated the share price of Catalist-listed Koyo International have been convicted and sentenced to imprisonment for false trading and for deceiving several brokerage firms through the unauthorised use of trading accounts.
After pleading guilty to their charges, Ang Wei Jie Simon, Koh Cheo Leng, Lin Eng Jue and Chong Yew Mun Alan were sentenced to 13 months’ imprisonment, 19 weeks’ imprisonment, 42 months’ imprisonment and 11 weeks’ imprisonment, respectively.
Lin, who had displayed a lack of remorse throughout proceedings according to prosecutors, was dealt the harshest sentence for masterminding the scheme. On top of being uncooperative, Lin provided “contrived and incredulous” responses to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) during investigations — only pleading guilty in the face of overwhelming evidence.
Over a 17-month period between 2014 and 2016, Lin and his seven accomplices manipulated the price of Koyo shares from a low of 16 cents Aug 12, 2014 to a high of 40 cents in January 2016. The scheme involved the buying and selling of Koyo shares via a total of 53 trading accounts under the names of 15 individuals across eight brokerages.
When the scheme unravelled, Koyo share price crashed by almost 84%, closing at 5.6 cents on Jan 18, 2016 causing the market cap of the company to drop by $58 million.
With the conclusion of the criminal proceedings against the last group of four, all eight people have been convicted for their involvement in the market-rigging scheme. Their convictions were a result of a joint investigation conducted by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Commercial Affairs Department of the Singapore Police Force, following a referral by Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited.
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Loo Siew Yee, assistant managing director for policy, payments and financial crime at MAS, says: “The convicted individuals executed a sophisticated market-rigging scheme that resulted in severe market distortion over a prolonged period and significant losses to market participants. MAS will act firmly against such egregious misconduct to preserve the integrity of our capital markets.”
As at 2.50pm, shares in Koyo International were trading flat at 4.4 cents.
