Chan was among the prosecution witnesses called to testify at the trial of Soh and his co-accused Quah Su-Ling. The pair is accused of allegedly masterminding a massive share manipulation operation involving the counters Blumont, Asiasons Capital (since then delisted) and LionGold Corp (renamed Shen Yao Holdings), also collectively known as BAL. The whole scheme fell apart in early October 2013 when the prices of BAL stocks crashed spectacularly under heavy shorting pressure, wiping out some $8 billion of value in the local exchange.
Richard Chan Sing En was a specialist in restructuring beleaguered listed companies. With the help of a network of investors, Chan would clean up the companies, selling off loss-making units and injecting new assets to give them a new lease of life.
At various points in time, Chan controlled, managed or was a director of Singapore-listed companies Magnus Energy, Blumont Group, Sunlight and ITE Electric. A few of these entities are by now known to be part of the network linked to John Soh Chee Wen and his associates. So prolific was Chan at doing his job that Soh and his associates called him Soh’s “blue-eyed boy”.
