John Soh is maintaining his stance that both he and his romantic partner Quah Su-Ling had not given instructions on trades in the lead up to the 2013 penny stock crash was questioned once again on June 2, the fifth day of the prosecution’s cross-examination.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Teo Guan Siew showed the court several instances where Adeline Cheng Jo-Ee is seemingly taking instructions from Soh – the alleged mastermind of the saga – and Quah who is supposedly his co-conspirator.
Cheng runs her own firm Alethia Asset Management and has been described as Soh’s “on again, off again girlfriend,” during the trial.
Soh and Quah are on trial for allegedly orchestrating Singapore’s largest share manipulation scheme between 2012 and 2013 involving three penny stocks: Blumont Group, Asiasons Capital (now Attilan Group) and LionGold, which has since become Shen Yao Holdings.
The eventual collapse of these counters – collectively referred to as BAL – in October 2013, wiped out some $8 billion in market value.
In one instance at 4.11pm on Feb 8 2013, Cheng told Quah: “how is everything? I may be able to help out with 500k LionGold with my line if you need”. By this she is referring to the purchase or sale of 500,000 shares of LionGold.
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Cheng proceeds to follow up with a call to Quah a minute later.
Quah responded: “thanks, appreciate this”, to which Cheng replied “no worries”.
When asked on the context of this correspondence, Soh said he has “no idea. It’s just two words [and] I cannot read into it”.
He went on to suggest that this was probably Cheng’s way of appeasing Neo Kim Hock – one of his close associates who was also the former executive chairman of Blumont.
The court had previously heard on June 2 that Neo had a run in with Cheng after Credit Suisse threatened to close his account and dump his shares. Cheng had subsequently offered to warehouse some of the shares, in a bid to placate Neo.
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DPP suggested to Soh that it was him and not Neo whom Cheng was trying to help with the 500,000 LionGold shares.
Looking baffled, Soh asked, “why would we need 500,000 to help us?”
“That is nonsense, that is nonsense,” he said emphatically.
The way he saw it, Cheng was offering money to Neo – a person who had just incurred losses, in this instance.
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Neo had been “reasonably happy,” after Cheng’s offer, Soh recalled.
“I disagree totally,” Soh responded, when DPP Teo suggested that this offer by Cheng had something to do with him or Quah.
DPP Teo proceeded to put forth an email sent out by Cheng that contained some sort of spreadsheet that seemingly contained information on trades.
The recipients of this were her account holders, like Neo, while Soh is also copied in the thread.
The context of the spreadsheet, Soh claimed, was that it was a “token move” by Cheng to placate her “angry clients” for she had refused to give them their statements of their accounts with banks such as Credit Suisse and UBS.
Soh had been in copy for she had “used me to tell [the account holders] that it’s all bona fide and everything is under control”.
On retrospect, Soh notes that the spreadsheet did not contain key information such as the cash balance in the account and how much was owed.
Soh reckons that Cheng had intended to “buy time” since she had “taken a fair bit of money”. He only came to know this in court when he was shown the actual bank statements, he added.
When probed further on this, Soh said that the spreadsheet was “meant to tell people [that Cheng was] doing a good job, and not to worry”.
DPP Teo went on to suggest that the intention was instead to update Soh – especially since there was a tab marked: market value (JS).
“I have no visibility,” Soh replied.
“I have no idea. It could be her other phraseology, I don’t know,” he added.
“Disagree”, Soh responded, when DPP Teo put to him that he had been giving Cheng trade instructions and that the accounts mentioned in the spreadsheet were his nominees used to trade BAL shares.
A sounding board
During the course of the cross-examination, Soh claimed he had been a sounding board of sorts to Neo whenever he faced any issues.
This stance is put to the test through an email dated Mar 15 2013, where Neo forwarded Soh his staff’s email seeking clarification on a set of Neo's Blumont trades that were not announced on the Singapore Exchange (SGX).
“I will be one of the go-to persons,” Soh suggested when asked why he had been sent this email.
“I don’t even know whether I read this email…I read it as he got his records mixed up and was asking if I knew,” Soh noted.
When asked why he was in position of sorts to answer Neo, Soh said the former had probably reached out to several others and was just trying his luck to see if he knew anything on this.
DPP Teo put it to Soh that it was him who had been controlling the accounts, and that was why Neo had reached out to him.
“No, I disagree,” he retorted vehemently.
In fact Soh said Neo’s account would be the last one he would use to buy shares of Blumont, given his position as executive chairman and therefore being required to make a declaration on SGX whenever he buys shares in his own company.
Soh’s tendency to be a sounding board was not confined to the period leading up to the crash.
Following the crash in early Oct 2013, he took it upon himself “to hold the hands of many friends and associates who had suffered”. His main point to them was to keep their communications with their brokers open and to be open to global deals.
These were insights he gleaned from the two crises he had previously undergone, he noted.
Aside from this, Soh told his associates to “face the issue, try to huddle down and work out a realistic payment proposal”.
Who is this guy?
The court was shown an email titled “Contacts” that Quah had sent Soh on Oct 23 2011. Here, the names of several individuals and their phone numbers are listed.
Other details of some individuals are also stated. For instance, one Alex Chew is identified with a note: “(Ken Tai replacement)”.
At first glance, Soh said he cannot remember why Quah had sent him this.
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On further probing, he speculates that these could have been individuals he meant to send thank you notes to, for sending wreaths and condolence messages after his wife’s passing in August 2011.
As for why there were additional details in parenthesis next to the names of certain individuals, Soh said that Quah was probably trying to help him out seeing as he is someone who cannot remember names and faces.
“If I’m going to make a thank you call, it will look stupid of me to say, ‘eh who is this guy’,” Soh explained rather comically.
DPP Teo went on to show Soh an email from Quah with the subject header: Marketing contacts – keep this in database in case.
Quah is seen to have sent this email across twice.
“I disagree with your reading,” Soh responded when DPP Teo asked if this list has anything to do with his promotion of counters such as LionGold.
Soh reckoned that it could possibly have been seen as a good list for him to build his promotions on.
The trial resumes on June 3 with DPP Teo continuing his cross-examination of Soh.
