Market rigger John Soh called involvement with Quah Su-Ling a '10-year-old infrastructure'
John Soh Chee Wen and Quah Su-Ling clicked despite their disparate backgrounds. PHOTO: ST FILE
Grace Leong
Senior Business Correspondent
MAY 8, 2022
SINGAPORE - He was the son of a shopkeeper in a rubber estate, while she came from old money in Malaysia.
In contrast to John Soh Chee Wen's relatively humble beginnings, Quah Su-Ling was from one of the old wealthy Penang families with her own network of ultra high net worth individuals stretching across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Hong Kong, according to The Edge Singapore.
But despite their disparate backgrounds, the two had clicked.
They met in Jakarta in 2001 or 2002, thanks to her distant cousin, Tamin Sjafei, a "comical, boisterous character who was everywhere", Soh, 62, testified during trial, and entered into a relationship about a decade later, around 2012 to 2013, after his wife died.
On May 5,
the pair were convicted over manipulating the share prices of Blumont Group, Asiasons Capital and LionGold Corp - known collectively as BAL - between August 2012 and October 2013, through a web of 187 trading accounts held with 20 financial institutions in the names of 58 individuals and companies.
The
194-day trial helped shed light on the duo's modus operandi - how they monitored, managed, and coordinated the many moving pieces of their elaborate scheme. That they were convicted on all the market manipulation and cheating charges, and a majority of 162 deception charges is significant.
Soh had testified in trial that he was impressed by Quah's "very strong views on many things", according to The Edge Singapore.
Her "pet peeve", according to Soh, were directors or CEOs of money-losing companies who paid themselves handsomely and with many perks. "She was one of the first original shareholders' activists," Soh said in the report.
He was also wowed by Quah, 57, after he convinced her to take his side in a takeover battle.
"As the hostilities went on, we had to have people with some people skills to start calling shareholders - even those you don't know - to try to get their proxies. And that's how I came to know her well. She was very good at winning people over to the cause she was selling," Soh said in The Edge Singapore's report.
By the time they became a couple, she was already separated from her husband, while Soh's wife had died.
Soh was also in a relationship with another woman Adeline Cheng Jo-Ee, while being involved with Quah, the report said.
Ms Cheng had said she was "unhappy" to be "in a love triangle with Soh and Quah" because she "felt Soh preferred Quah to her", the report said.
But in a recorded conversation between Soh and Ms Cheng, Soh described his involvement with Quah as a "10-year-old infrastructure", the prosecution said during trial.
"The core of the case is about a network. It's an entire infrastructure of numerous trading accounts set up to create a false market in BAL shares. There is overwhelming evidence that (Soh and Quah) were in control of a vast network of nominee accounts," the prosecution said.
The prosecution argued that the pair drew on personal and business relationships to control trading accounts belonging to family, friends, associates and companies related to them, and "exploited contra trading to serve their nefarious ends".
Among the nominee account holders were Ms Cheng, Soh's two sons, Quah's mother, her brother-in-law, and former independent director at Annica Holdings and ITE Electric Goh Hin Calm.
Goh, who helped to manage the finances, among other things, pleaded guilty to abetting Soh and Quah in the scheme and was sentenced to three years' jail in 2019.
Just who is John Soh?
He has been described as a tycoon, corporate bigwig and dealmaker, and was once one of Malaysia's biggest stock market investors. His fortunes soared in 1996 from a partnership with Mr Ling Hee Liong, son of former Malaysian transport minister and former Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) president Ling Liong Sik. They subsequently fell out.
He started out as a salesman and claimed to have made his first million at the age of 22.
Soh later cut his teeth on restructuring troubled companies and went on to build several companies in construction and hospitality.
Formerly a top member of the MCA, Soh had been linked to listed Malaysian entities, including Promet and Kelanamas Industries, most of which went under during the 1997-1998 Asian financial crisis.
Prior to his conviction in Singapore, Soh had been convicted in Malaysia.
In 1998, Malaysia's Securities Commission launched an investigation into whether Soh used nominees to gain control of brokerage firm Omega Securities, violating a Malaysian law that forbids anyone from owning more than one brokerage without government approval. He already controlled at least one other brokerage.
In 1999, there was an arrest warrant put out on him, when he was out of the country.
He returned to Malaysia in 2002 and was arrested. Charged and convicted in 2007, Soh admitted to abetting former TA Securities boss Tiah Thee Kian to provide false statements to the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange involving shares of Omega Securities in 1997. He was given the maximum fine of RM6 million.
Nearly a decade after his conviction in Malaysia, Soh was probed by Singapore authorities for his "significant role" in the penny stock crash.
In a January 2016 interview with The Straits Times,
he said he has "survived worse", after news broke that he was assisting with investigations.
Soh, who has been in remand since November 2016, declined to comment after the verdict.
About the case
Malaysian John Soh Chee Wen and his girlfriend Quah Su-Ling, the masterminds of Singapore’s most serious case of market manipulation that wiped out more than $8 billion from the stock market in October 2013, were convicted on 349 counts of market manipulation, deception and cheating financial institutions.
High Court judge Hoo Sheau Peng on Thursday found Soh guilty of 180 charges of the 188 he was facing, while Quah was convicted on 169 charges of 177 she faced.
The verdict came after 194 days of trial over the past three years, with close to 100 prosecution witnesses giving testimony. Both were acquitted of eight deception charges.
Their sentencing will take place at a later date.
The pair were convicted of manipulating the share prices of Blumont Group, Asiasons Capital and LionGold Corp – known collectively as BAL – between August 2012 and October 2013, through a web of 187 trading accounts held with 20 financial institutions.
The accounts were in the names of 58 individuals and companies.
The duo manipulated the market and price of BAL shares by controlling and using the 187 trading accounts to make thousands of manipulative trades in each of the three stocks.
“In particular, the trades between the controlled accounts were conducted to generate artificial liquidity and demand for these shares, to cause the (BAL) share prices to rise over time,” the police said.
They revealed that during investigations, the authorities raided over 50 locations, interviewed more than 70 people and went through more than two million e-mails and half a million trade orders.
