KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian businessman Datuk John Soh Chee Wen, 63, the mastermind of Singapore's biggest case of stock market manipulation that wiped out nearly S$8 billion in market value in October 2013, was sentenced to 36 years in jail on Wednesday.
The court case spanned a record 349 successful charges in some 200 days of trial over nearly four years.
The New Straits Times previously reported about Soh and his storied background in commerce and politics. Below are excerpts from articles published in the NST in 2019.
BACKGROUND
Born in Batu Pahat, Johor in 1959, Soh is the son of a shopkeeper. He attended Batu Pahat High School, the alma mater of business mogul Tan Sri Vincent Tan, political veteran Lim Kit Siang and former Dewan Rakyat speaker, the late Tun Syed Nasir Ismail.
Soh's friends described him as a person with integrity, who achieved success due to hard work and tenacity. An all-rounder, he was president of the English and debating clubs, and was active in badminton, softball and athletics.
He enrolled to further his studies in economics in Universiti Malaya in 1979, but quit after three days. He ventured into sales and made his first million at the age of 21 with his first direct sales company.
He was declared a bankrupt in 1984 during a credit crunch a year prior to the Pan-Electric Industries debacle, a case which forced a three-day closure of stock exchanges in Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
Soh eventually found his true calling, taking unprofitable companies and turning them around using unconventional methods.
At his peak, he controlled listed counters, such as Autoways, Promet, Kelanamas, Uniphoenix and Kuantan Flour Mill.
Soh's passion to help people led him to entering politics at a young age. He became an MCA member at 21 and was later elected as Petaling Jaya MCA division chief.
Soh was credited with establishing a service centre with its own staff, a first in the party.
A friend once said that Soh was a "people-person". His work in MCA caught the attention of former party president Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik and he later got into ventures with Dr Ling's son, Ling Hee Liong.
In 1995, Soh was appointed to the party's presidential council despite not holding any government position or being a member of parliament.
When Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was sacked as deputy prime minister in 1998, Soh supported Anwar in the Sept 20 rally that year. This led to him being rejected within MCA circles.
His ties with Liong Sik and MCA ended after that incident.
Another blow came when the Securities Commission launched an investigation into Soh for using nominees to gain control of brokerage firm Omega Securities in 1997.
His action violated Malaysian law that forbids anyone from owning more than one brokerage without government approval. Soh controlled at least one other brokerage firm at the time.
An arrest warrant was issued when he was overseas, and the case only made progress when he returned to Malaysia in 2002.
He was fined RM6 million by the Sessions Court when he pleaded guilty to a charge of abetting former TA Securities executive chairman Datuk Tiah Thee Kian by providing false statements to the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange involving shares in Omega Securities.
CONTRIBUTIONS
His association with PKR did not stop with the Reformasi movement in 1998. Many former PKR leaders described him as a "funding father" as he contributed a lot during the early years of the party's struggle.
"He was one of those who helped in the organising work in 1998. He was involved when the party was founded. He was also involved in funding," a source said.
It is common knowledge among political observers that Soh is the alleged owner of the office building in Petaling Jaya that houses the PKR headquarters.
The businessman used to work closely with many former PKR leaders, such as former secretary-general Salehudin Hashim, Datuk Zaid Ibrahim and Aasil Kazi Ahmad.
He was appointed to the PKR political bureau, but later stepped down when Salehudin resigned.
Soh was known to be charitable.
In 1993, the school board at SJK(C) Sin Ming in Puchong, Selangor, approached him for a RM30,000 contribution to replace a bus.
He granted the wish when he saw how dilapidated the school was and how the school board chairman, known only as Goh, a coffee shop operator, would wake up at 5am to ferry students to school for free.
This story touched Soh so much that he decided to adopt the school as a "turnaround" project.
His contribution eventually helped to maintain enrolment at the school which numbered 2,100 students at the end of 2018.
To honour his contributions to SJK(C) Sin Ming, names of the three most important women in Soh's life were etched in the school building.
Its assembly hall, which fits 12 badminton courts, is named after his late wife, Joanne Lau May Foong. Two other buildings in the school are named after Soh's mother and grandmother.
TRIAL PERIOD
By the end of 2018, Soh, who was 60 at the time, had been in Changi prison, Singapore, for two years while awaiting trial.
Soh was arrested on Nov 25, 2016 and charged the next day, but he had already been under country arrest when he handed his passport to the republic's Commercial Affairs Department in 2014.
He was convicted for 180 charges including those under Singapore's Securities and Futures Act for allegedly being the mastermind behind the penny stock crash.
Also in the dock are former Ipco International chief executive officer (CEO) Quah Su Ling, who was convicted of 169 charges. Another person, former Ipco interim CEO Goh Hin Calm, had six charges.
The trio were initially accused of manipulating three penny stocks — Blumont Group, Asiasons Capital (since then renamed Attilan) and LionGold Corp.
Hin Calm was sentenced to three years' jail in 2019 after pleading guilty to two charges of false trading and market rigging.
While Quah had been out on a S$4 million bail, Soh, on the other hand, failed to obtain bail twice as the Singapore courts had viewed him as a flight risk.
The probe into the penny stock crash was one of the most extensive in the republic.
Singapore's Attorney-General's Chambers, Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) revealed in 2016 that evidence comprised "over two million emails, half a million trade orders and thousands of financial statements".
The joint probe by CAD and MAS involved raids on more than 50 locations, including residences, offices and brokerages.
Some 70 witnesses were interviewed and investigators reviewed about 20,000 email items, monthly account statements related to more than 500 trading accounts and more than 1,100 bank accounts.
The original two articles on Soh are as follows:
https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2019/01/447459/who-john-soh
https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2018/12/445400/long-wait-his-day-court