Public Prosecutor v Soh Guan Cheow Anthony

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judge: Soh Tze Bian
• Judgment Date: 24 March 2014
• Neutral Citation: [2014] SGDC 107
• Hearing Date: 20 March 2014,24 March 2014,28 October 2013,01 November 2013,18 October 2013,25 October 2013,21 October 2013,23 October 2013,21 March 2014,17 March 2014,04 November 2013,14 October 2013,31 October 2013,25 February 2014,16 October 2013
• Citation: [2014] SGDC 107
• Year: 2014
• Court: District Court (Singapore)
• Docket Number: DAC 26026/2012 & others
• Plaintiff Counsel: DPPs Mr Peter Koy, Mr Thevar Navin Shanmugaraj & Mr Leong Weng Tat
• Published date: 07 April 2014

District Judge Soh Tze Bian: Charges

The accused person (AP), male/58 years old claimed trial to 11 charges comprising 7 charges (in DAC 26026-32/2012) under s 218(2)(b) and punishable under s 221(1) of the Securities and Futures Act (Cap 289) (SFA) with a fine not exceeding $250,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years or to both; 1 charge (in DAC 26033/2012) which is an offence punishable under s 330(1)(a) of the SFA with a fine not exceeding $50,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or to both; 1 charge (in DAC 26062/2012) under s 140(2) read with and punishable under s 140(3) of the SFA with a fine not exceeding $250,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years or to both; 1 charge (in DAC 26063/2012) under s 197(1)(b) read with s 331(1) of the SFA and punishable under s 204(1) of the SFA with a fine not exceeding $250,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 7 years or to both; and 1 charge (in DAC 26064/2012) which is an offence punishable under s 330(2) of the SFA with a fine not exceeding $50,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or to both. These 11 charges are as follows: (i) In DAC 26026/2012, the AP, on 21 February 2008, in Singapore, whilst being a director and thus a connected person of Jade Technologies Holdings Ltd (“the Company”), a body corporate whose shares were traded on the Catalist of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited, was in possession of information that was not generally available but, if it were generally available, a reasonable person would expect it to have a material effect on the price of the Company’s shares, the information being that Asia Pacific Links Ltd (APLL) did not have sufficient financial resources to implement its voluntary conditional cash offer for all ordinary issued shares of the Company in full, and he procured the sale of 1,000,000 of the Company’s shares at the price of $0.220 per share in UBS trading account no. 227389 maintained under the name of Faitheagle Investments Ltd, a company in which he is the sole director and shareholder of, when he knew that the above information was not generally available, and if it were generally available, it might have a material effect on the price of the Company’s shares. (ii) In DAC 26027/2012, the AP, on 22 February 2008, in Singapore, whilst being a director and thus a connected person of Jade Technologies Holdings Ltd (“the Company”), a body corporate whose shares were traded on the Catalist of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited, was in possession of information that was not generally available but, if it were generally available, a reasonable person would expect it to have a material effect on the price of the Company’s shares, the information being that APLL did not have sufficient financial resources to implement its voluntary conditional cash offer for all ordinary issued shares of the Company in full, and he procured the sale of 2,000,000 of the Company’s shares at the price of $0.220 per share through UBS trading account no. 227389 maintained under the name of Faitheagle Investments Ltd, a company in which he is the sole director and shareholder of, when he knew that the above information was not generally available, and if it were generally available, it might have a material effect on the price of the Company’s shares. (iii) In DAC 26028/2012, the AP, on 25 February 2008, in Singapore, whilst being a director and thus a connected person of Jade Technologies Holdings Ltd (“the Company”), a body corporate whose shares were traded on the Catalist of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited, he was in possession of information that was not generally available but, if it were generally available, a reasonable person would expect it to have a material effect on the price of the Company’s shares, the information being that APLL did not have sufficient financial resources to implement its voluntary conditional cash offer for all ordinary issued shares of the Company in full, and he procured the sale of 1,500,000 of the Company’s shares at the price of $0.220 per share through UBS trading account no. 227389 maintained under the name of Faitheagle Investments Ltd, a company in which he is the sole director and shareholder of, when he knew that the above information was not generally available, and if it were generally available, it might have a material effect on the price of the Company’s shares. (iv) In DAC 26029/2012, the AP, on 10 March 2008, in Singapore, whilst being a director and thus a connected person of Jade Technologies Holdings Ltd (“the Company”), a body corporate whose shares were traded on the Catalist of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited, he was in possession of information that was not generally available but, if it were generally available, a reasonable person would expect it to have a material effect on the price of the Company’s shares, the information being that APLL did not have sufficient financial resources to implement its voluntary conditional cash offer for all ordinary issued shares of the Company in full, and he procured the sale of 15,000,000 of the Company’s shares at an average price of $0.222 per share through UBS trading account no. 190639 maintained under the name of Faitheagle Investments Ltd, a company in which he is the sole director and shareholder of, when he knew that the above information was not generally available, and if it were generally available, it might have a material effect on the price of the Company’s shares. (v) In DAC 26030/2012, the AP, on 11 March 2008, in Singapore, whilst being a director and thus a connected person of Jade Technologies Holdings Ltd (“the Company”), a body corporate whose shares were traded on the Catalist of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited, he was in possession of information that was not generally available but, if it were generally available, a reasonable person would expect it to have a material effect on the price of the Company’s shares, the information being that APLL did not have sufficient financial resources to implement its voluntary conditional cash offer for all ordinary issued shares of the Company in full, and he procured the sale of 11,000,000 of the Company’s shares at an average price of $0.2234 per share through UBS trading account no. 190639 maintained under the name of Faitheagle Investments Ltd, a company in which he is the sole director and shareholder of, when he knew that the above information was not generally available, and if it were generally available, it might have a material effect on the price of the Company’s shares. (vi) In DAC 26031/2012, the AP, on 17 March 2008, in Singapore, whilst being a director and thus a connected person of Jade Technologies Holdings Ltd (“the Company”), a body corporate whose shares were traded on the Catalist of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited, he was in possession of information that was not generally available but, if it were generally available, a reasonable person would expect it to have a material effect on the price of the Company’s shares, the information being that APLL did not have sufficient financial resources to implement its voluntary conditional cash offer for all ordinary issued shares of the Company in full, and he procured the sale of 4,700,000 of the Company’s shares at an average price of $0.220 per share through UBS trading account no. 190639 maintained under the name of Faitheagle Investments Ltd, a company in which he is the sole director and shareholder of, when he knew that the above information was not generally available, and if it were generally available, it might have a material effect on the price of the Company’s shares. (vii) In DAC 26032/2012, the AP, on 31 March 2008, in Singapore, whilst being a director and thus a connected person of Jade Technologies Holdings Ltd (“the Company”), a body corporate whose shares were traded on the Catalist of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited, he was in possession of information that was not generally available but, if they were generally available, a reasonable person would expect each of them to have a material effect on the price of the Company’s shares, the information being that: (a) APLL did not have sufficient financial resources to implement its voluntary conditional cash offer (“the Offer”) for all ordinary issued shares of the Company in full; (b) OCBC had received confirmation from Standard Chartered Bank (Jakarta) that it did not issue the financial resources confirmation letter and the banker’s guarantee which APLL previously used as proof that it had sufficient financial resources to satisfy full acceptances of the Offer ; and/or (c) Opes Prime Stockbroking Ltd (“Opes”) had gone into receivership on 28 March 2008 and 300,050,000 of the Company’s shares which APLL had lent to Opes pursuant to a share lending agreement may be seized or sold by the creditors of Opes, and that APLL may no longer have beneficial ownership of the said shares, and he procured the sale of 15,000,000 of the Company’s shares at an average price of $0.220 per share through UBS trading account no. 190639 maintained under the name of Faitheagle Investments Ltd, a company in which he is the sole director and shareholder of, when he knew that the above information was not generally available, and if it were generally available, it might have a material effect on the price of the Company’s shares. (viii) In DAC 26033/2012, the AP, on 21 January 2008, in Singapore, whilst being a director of Jade Technologies Holdings Ltd (“the Company”), a body corporate whose shares were listed on the Catalist of the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited, knowingly and wilfully authorised the furnishing of a false report relating to his dealings in the Company’s securities to the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited, the...