Briefs

From the “very first day” he started taking trading instructions from alleged 2013 penny stock crash masterminds John Soh Chee Wen and Quah Su-Ling, former Phillips Securities remisier Henry Tjoa feared being charged for market manipulation.

Tjoa, also known as Husein Tjoa Sang Hi, was roped into the market rolling operations by Ken Tai Chee Ming, another broker used by Soh and Quah.

Under cross examination by Soh’s defence counsel, senior counsel N Sreenivasan of K&L Gates Straits Law, Tjoa admitted that he was aware that market manipulation was going on back in March and April 2013.

“Yes, I knew of the manipulation because I would occasionally attend meetings, so I know about the rolling over of shares,” said Tjoa.

However, he has insisted that he did not conduct trades without any instructions from Soh, Quah, and Tai, or other trading representatives in the “inner circle”, such as Dick Gwee Yow Pin and Gabriel Gan.

For his involvement in the scheme, Tjoa profited handsomely. In court on March 3, he admitted to raking in some $1 million in commissions from rolling the shares of LionGold Corp, Blumont Group and Asiasons Capital (now Attilan Group) over the course of a year.

However, he denied participating in a scheme with Tai to make unauthorised trades in order to churn more commissions. According to his conditioned statement, Tjoa had claimed to have been already consistently earning fees of more than $1 million a year as far back as 2007.

What Tjoa did admit to, later in the trial last week, was tampering with witnesses and lying to the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) when investigations into the market manipulation scheme were launched.

Pressed by Sreenivasan, the former abettor-turned-prosecution witness revealed that he was not entirely truthful during both his interviews with the CAD – first in 2013, and then in 2018.

In particular, he had avoided mention of Tai. He also admitted to instructing his three assistants to tell untruths when they were questioned by the authorities, in order to correspond with his own lies.

“You wanted to hide the operations from the CAD,” said Sreenivasan. “You did not implicate Tai because you wanted to hide your own role in the operations… because the trail would eventually come back to you as you were one of the key players.”

Later, Sreenivasan also took issue with Tjoa’s omission of what he deemed to be other “imperative details” in the conditioned statements.

Sreenivasan honed in on the fact that Tjoa had only disclosed the involvement of Yow in his second conditioned statement recorded on April 18, 2018.

In this conditioned statement, Tjoa had recounted what Sreenivasan described as “painful” details about Gwee. These included facts such as that Gwee was a “Hwa Chong boy” like Tjoa himself, and that he was “friendly”.

However, Sreenivasan pinned down a major factual omission in the statement: Tjoa had failed to disclose how Soh had said that Gwee was there to help Tjoa in the trading of the three counters’ shares and, thereby, assist Soh in the manipulation of the market.

According to Sreenivasan, this was “the most important detail” that should have been disclosed from the get-go.

“When you changed the story and added in this detail [about Gwee], I’m suggesting that you made it up so you could fix Soh,” said Sreenivasan. “It was something important and you omitted it.” — Uma Devi

Accrelist declines to spill the tea on alleged corruption offences

Terence Tea, executive chairman of Accrelist and its subsidiary Jubilee Industries, along with two other members of Jubilee’s senior management, have been requested by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) to assist with a probe on Feb 25.

However, in response to queries from the Singapore Exchange (SGX) seeking more details, the group on March 5 sidestepped the questions.

“Jubilee’s Board is still taking time to deliberate on the response, while taking legal advice on the same,” the group said.

“In order to fully cooperate with the CPIB and to avoid compromising the confidentiality of the CPIB investigation, Jubilee is unable to provide further details at this stage,” it added.

The investigations relate to certain expenses incurred and a payment made by Honfoong Plastic Industries (HFPL) during the Lunar New Year period. Jubilee holds a 70% stake in HFPL.

As of March 3, Accrelist said such expenses and payment are not material to its financial position.

Meanwhile, Tea and one of the management personnel have posted bail in relation to this alleged offence.

SGX had issue a query about the identity of the two other senior management personnel assisting in the CPIB investigation; more details on the investigation; the expense and payment made; how the expenses are not material to Jubilee’s financial position; and if Tea and the other senior management who posted bail had any documents or devices seized.

The group did not provide details to any of these queries.

The Edge Singapore has reached out to Accrelist for comments. — Samantha Chiew

CAD commences probe on TEE International’s Phua

The Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) has commenced probes on Phua Chian Kin, former group CEO of TEE International.

Investigators from the white-collar crime unit have already taken away certain documents and items from the company’s premises earlier in the day, the company said in a late-night announcement on March 4. “The CAD has not given any further details of its investigations. The company intends to cooperate fully with the CAD on its investigations,” said TEE International.

Just a day earlier, the company released a summary of an investigation by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Risk Services, which was appointed last September to probe alleged unauthorised fund transfers totalling $6.55 million between TEE International and entities personally held by Phua.

PwC’s report has suggested several potential breaches of the Companies Act as well as possible non-compliance with Singapore Exchange Listing Rules and the Code of Corporate Governance.

The company said on March 4 that it has been required by the CAD to provide documents ranging from supporting documents for all remittances between itself and Phua that are the subject of PwC’s investigation; minutes of board meetings since June 1, 2017; general ledgers of the company for its FY2018 and FY2019; and signing limits of bank accounts given by TEE International to Phua.

CAD has asked for all correspondence pertaining to the investigations between TEE International, PwC, other auditors, and internal auditors.

CAD is also requiring access to the computers containing emails, chats assigned to Phua, former group chief financial officer Yeo Ai Mei, and financial controller Tan Keng Hean. — Chan Chao Peh