SINGAPORE (THE BUSINESS TIMES) - Former managing director of Catalist-listed air-conditioning player Natural Cool on Tuesday (Feb 25) was slapped with 19 charges, mainly for allegedly creating a false appearance with respect to the share price of another listed company Gaylin Holdings.

Wong Leon Keat was said to have purchased a small lot of oil and gas company Gaylin (now Amos Group) shares or put in a buy order at a price much higher than the then-trading price, mostly near the close of trading between November 2015 and October 206. He allegedly carried out this modus operandi 17 times during the period, thereby attracting 17 charges.

Further, he faces an allegation of deceiving UOB Kay Hian by not disclosing his beneficial interest of 50 per cent of the Gaylin shares in the trading account of one Lim Teck Chuan maintained with the brokerage.

The last charge is about the 44-year-old Wong giving false information to a Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) officer during investigation on Aug 23, 2017. He alleged lied to the officer that one Khwaja Asif Rahman had never given him any mandate for his trading accounts.

Wong is allowed to be out on $80,000 bail and the case has been adjourned to March 24.

The accused stepped down as the managing director and chief corporate officer of Natural Cool in early January, and the regulatory filing at that time stated that he was a partner in an accounting firm and a director of 11 other companies - Gaylin not among them.