$30,000 fine, jail for ex-director for market rigging
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A director was jailed for eight weeks and fined $30,000 yesterday after he rigged the price of Gaylin Holdings - a share he had recommended to investors.
Wong Leon Keat, 46, had bought shares in the mainboard-listed oil and gas player on 17 occasions between November 2015 and October 2016 after its price had been sliding.
It fell from 60 cents in 2014 to slightly above 15 cents in 2016.
He pleaded guilty last month to seven charges of market manipulation and one count of using an investor's securities account to trade.
Another 11 similar offences were taken into consideration when the district judge sentenced him yesterday.
The court said his acts had a market impact and had crossed the custodial threshold, despite lawyer Lee Teck Leng arguing for a high fine of $160,000 only.
District Judge Toh Han Li said: "The artificial demand generated by the accused distorted the true forces of supply and demand, which caused Gaylin's share price to close higher but for the accused's actions...
"The misleading appearance was the signal to potential investors that the price of Gaylin was higher than it should have been and had the potential to mislead them on the true market value of Gaylin shares."
The prosecution had sought jail of 16 to 20 weeks and a fine of $40,000.
Mr Lee said Wong would appeal the jail term and is out on bail pending the High Court hearing.
Wong was a director of investment holding company Rhodus Capital and also a director of corporate advisory services firm WLA Regnum, but he had recommended Gaylin (now called Amos Group) shares to investors in his personal capacity.
He was also the managing director and chief corporate officer of Catalist-listed air-conditioning company Natural Cool, but stepped down in January last year, shortly before he was charged with these offences.
He had bought 100 shares to 200 shares each time in the highly illiquid Gaylin counter at the best ask price during trading hours and also placed buy orders to raise the closing price during the six-minute closing routine after trading stopped for the day.
This caused the counter to trade at 6.5 per cent to 38.6 per cent higher at the closing bell.
THE BUSINESS TIMES