Singapore court dismisses John Soh’s appeal for less jail time

Singapore court dismisses John Soh’s appeal for less jail time

Singapore's Court of Appeal affirms the Malaysian businessman's 36-year sentence, citing the scale, sophistication, and market impact of his offences.

Singapore’s Court of Appeal affirmed the 36- and 20-year prison sentences passed on Malaysian businessman John Soh and co-conspirator Quah Su-Ling for stock market manipulation offences.
PETALING JAYA:
Singapore’s Court of Appeal today dismissed the appeal by Malaysian businessman John Soh and co‑conspirator Quah Su‑Ling for reduced jail terms, following their conviction for masterminding the republic’s largest stock market manipulation four years ago.

The republic’s top court affirmed the jail terms of 36 and 20 years, respectively, for Soh and Quah, citing the scale, sophistication, and market impact of their offences, The Singapore Edge reported.

Soh and Quah were sentenced in 2022 after they were convicted of manipulating the share prices of Blumont Group, Asiasons Capital, and Lion-Gold Corp between August 2012 and October 2013.

Their actions wiped out nearly S$8 billion (RM27 billion) of the market’s capitalisation.

Soh was convicted on 180 charges, including market manipulation, false trading, deception, cheating and tampering, while Quah was convicted on 169 charges.

In rejecting their bid for a shorter jail term, a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon and Justices Tay Yong Kwang and Andrew Phang endorsed the High Court’s earlier findings that the scheme “was not only deliberate but highly coordinated”.

Soh was represented by N Sreenivasan while Quah was represented by N Sivananthan.

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