A committal hearing to determine whether there is sufficient evidence for the 2013 penny stock crash case to proceed to trial began yesterday in the Supreme Court.

Malaysian businessman John Soh Chee Wen and former chief executive of Ipco International Quah Su-Ling stand accused of masterminding the crash, which wiped out $8 billion in shareholder value from the Singapore Exchange in three days in October 2013.

They are said to have used more than 180 trading accounts to manipulate the stock prices of Blumont Group, Asiasons Capital (now Attilan Group) and LionGold Corp.

Soh is represented by Mr Narayanan Sreenivasan, Mr Selvarajan Balamurugan and Mr Jason Lim Wei Liang of Straits Law Practice. Quah is represented by Mr Philip Fong, Ms Lynn Wong, Mr Sui Yi Siong and Ms Liew Jia Min of Eversheds Harry Elias.

Goh Hin Calm, who resigned in March from his role as interim chief executive of Ipco International, is accused of being an accomplice to the pair. He is represented by Mr Nicholas Jeyaraj Narayanan and Ms Cheryl Chan of Nicholas & Tan Partnership.

The examining magistrate is Assistant Registrar James Elisha Lee Han Leong.

The prosecution, led by Deputy Public Prosecutor Peter Koy, has named a total of 67 witnesses and will call 13 of them to testify over the course of the committal hearing, scheduled to last till tomorrow.