The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has issued a five-year prohibition order (PO) against Chong Yew Mun Alan on Sept 3. The PO comes after Chong, a former representative of RHB Securities (Singapore), was convicted in the State Courts under the Securities and Futures Act (SFA) for the false trading of shares in Catalist-listed Koyo International 5OC .
According to the MAS, Chong’s offences gave the central bank reason to believe that he will not “perform financial advisory and capital markets services honestly”.
Between Dec 1, 2015, and Jan 15, 2016, Chong had taken part in and assisted Lin Eng Jue to create the false impression that Koyo’s shares were worth more; to do so, the pair were trading shares in the company at progressively higher prices. The scheme was conducted to get a buyer to acquire Koyo via a reverse takeover. The scheme took Koyo’s shares to a high of 40 cents in January 2016 and came crashing down to close at 5.6 cents on Jan 28, 2016, when the scheme was revealed.
On Lin’s instructions, Chong carried out trades of Koyo shares in 15 trading accounts using the respective account holders’ login credentials; the brokerage firms did not consent to the trades.
Lin was sentenced to 42 months’ imprisonment by the State Courts on May 31, 2023, while Chong was sentenced to 11 weeks’ imprisonment on July 13, 2023.
Under the PO, Chong is prohibited from providing any financial advisory service. He is also banned from taking part in the management, acting as a director, or becoming a substantial shareholder of any financial advisory firm under the Financial Advisers Act.
See also: Koyo International share manipulation mastermind slapped with 42 months’ imprisonment
In addition, Chong is prohibited from performing any regulated activity and from taking part in the management, acting as a director, or becoming a substantial shareholder, of any capital markets services firm under the SFA.
As at 3.26pm, shares in Koyo are trading flat at 4.5 cents.
