John Soh Chee Wen, a prominent Malaysian businessman, was handed 36 years' jail. His ex-partner and accomplice Quah Su-Ling, former CEO of Singapore Exchange(SGX)-listed IPCO International, was given 20 years' jail. Soh and Quah had been convicted of 180 and 169 charges respectively after a long-running trial spanning almost 200 days and involving close to 100 prosecution witnesses.
From August 2012 to October 2013, Quah and Soh artificially inflated the share prices of three penny stocks: Blumont, Asiasons and LionGold. They controlled, obtained financing for, conducted illegitimate trading activity in and coordinated their use of 189 securities trading accounts. These accounts were held with 20 financial institutions in the names of 60 individuals and companies.
The bulk of their charges - 106 counts of deception - were for deceiving financial institutions by concealing their involvement when giving instructions to make orders and trades. Soh was additionally found guilty of witness tampering by asking four witnesses to lie to investigators after the stock market crash.
The scheme unravelled on Oct 4, 2013 when the share prices of the three companies crashed, erasing S$8 billion in market capitalisation from SGX.
The prosecution had sought 40 years' jail for Soh, and 19-and-a-half years for Quah, who was less culpable. A third co-accused, 59-year-old Goh Hin Calm, was sentenced to 3 years' jail in 2019 after pleading guilty to two charges of false trading and market rigging.
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