John Soh and Quah Su-Ling, masterminds behind S$8 billion penny-stock crash, get 36 and 20 years' jail each

SINGAPORE — The mastermind behind the S$8 billion penny-stock crash in late 2013, John Soh Chee Wen, was sentenced by the High Court on Wednesday (Dec 28) to 36 years in prison, while his co-conspirator, Quah Su-Ling, was sentenced to 20 years’ jail.

Soh, 62, and Quah, 57, were convicted in May this year on more than a hundred offences each, following a trial lasting close to 200 days.

Soh, a Malaysian, was convicted of 180 charges while Quah was convicted of 169 charges, in what authorities described earlier this year as “the largest market manipulation case in Singapore’s history”.

These offences include 10 counts of false trading and price manipulation, over 150 counts of deception and six counts of cheating, relating to the scheme executed from August 2012 to October 2013, to manipulate the shares of Blumont Group, Asiasons Capital and LionGold Corp.

Soh, who was also convicted of additional offences under the Companies Act and for witness tampering, has been in remand since November 2016 while Quah has been out on bail of S$4 million.

Both the accused stated on Wednesday that they would be appealing against their conviction and their sentences. Soh, however, will not be appealing against the charges under the Companies Act.

Soh's prison sentence took effect from the date of his remand. 

The duo controlled and used 187 trading accounts held in the names of 58 different account holders, with 20 financial institutions, to make thousands of manipulative trades of stocks of the same company.

“In particular, the trades between the controlled accounts were conducted to generate artificial liquidity and demand for these shares, to cause the share prices to rise over time, and to retain control of large amounts of shares without disclosing this to the market,” the police and the Monetary Authority of Singapore said in May following their conviction.

As a result of their manipulation, the stocks of these companies surged multiple times in the months before they slumped.

In delivering her decision on Wednesday to a full courtroom, Justice Hoo Sheau Peng said it was necessary and of utmost importance that the aggregate sentence captured the "gravity of their wrongdoing".

Justice Hoo noted the substantial scale, complexity and sophistication of the scheme which the accused carried out for financial gain.

“They personally minded and tended to the intricate scheme they devised on an almost daily basis for a prolonged period of 14 months, taking steps to evade detection by the authorities,” she said.

She added that even after the market crashed and the scheme failed, Soh continued to subvert justice and concealed their wrongdoings, which were uncovered after “intensive” investigations.

A third co-accused related to the case, Goh Hin Calm, was convicted in March 2019 and pleaded guilty to two charges under the Securities and Futures Act for intentionally aiding Soh and Quah to manipulate the market. 

He was sentenced to three years’ jail.