Sat. Oct 5th, 2024
Occasional Digest - a story for you

A Malaysian businessman convicted of masterminding a stock scam that wiped S$8 billion ($8.75 billion) off Singapore’s exchange has been sentenced to 36 years in jail by a court in the city-state.

John Soh Chee Wen orchestrated the scheme, according to court documents, and his accomplice, his Singaporean girlfriend Quah Su-Ling, was also given a 20-year jail term following a four-year trial. 

Both were convicted in May of using more than 180 trading accounts to inflate the share prices of three companies in what High Court judge Hoo Sheau Peng called a “scheme of substantial scale, complexity and sophistication”.

“Armed with a good understanding of the securities and financial markets, and tapping on their extensive connections and networks, they boldly exploited the system,” she said during sentencing.

“Immense harm” was caused by the stock market crash, she added.

Prosecutors called it the “most serious case” of stock market manipulation in Singapore, a global financial centre.

Source link