KTL Global’s former CEO to serve eight months’ jail for false trading
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Tan Kheng Yeow was sentenced to jail for conspiring with another individual to create a false appearance of active trading in KTL shares.
PHOTO: BT FILE
Chong Xin Wei
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SINGAPORE - The former chief executive of mainboard-listed KTL Global, Tan Kheng Yeow, began serving his eight-month jail sentence after the High Court dismissed his appeal in July, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Singapore Police Force (SPF) said in a joint statement on Aug 28.
Tan was sentenced to jail by the State Courts on Jan 23 for conspiring with Tang Boon Hai to create a false appearance of active trading in KTL shares.
Their actions came amid concerns that KTL was unable to meet the new minimum trading price requirement announced by the Singapore Exchange in 2014.
Under the requirement, a mainboard-listed company’s volume-weighted average price (VWAP) over six months cannot fall below 20 cents. Issuers that fail to comply may be delisted.
The six-month VWAP of KTL’s shares as at Aug 1, 2014, was below the minimum price required.
Hence, between Oct 16, 2014, and Sept 8, 2015, Tan conspired with Tang to create a facade that people were actively buying KTL shares, in order to increase the company’s share price.
Tan also held significant quantities of KTL shares and knew that his net worth would increase along with the share price, said MAS and SPF. They highlighted that Tan also arranged for funds to be transferred to Tang to finance trades in KTL shares placed by the latter in 14 trading accounts.
Tang was convicted on April 18, 2023, and sentenced to 30 months’ jail. Meanwhile, Tan Chun Yong, a former trading representative from OCBC, was charged on Oct 29, 2020, and court proceedings are still ongoing. Tan Kheng Yeow pleaded guilty to one charge under Section 197(1)(a) of the Securities and Futures Act (SFA) and Section 109 of the Penal Code. He faces two other charges of cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property.
KTL shares last closed flat at 11.6 cents on Aug 6, 2021, before a trading halt. The company subsequently applied to turn the halt into a voluntary suspension.
The voluntary suspension came after the branding, operations and procurement company undertook an independent review to look into transactions of its subsidiary Bluegas with four branding, operation and procurement customers in China.
In a bourse filing on May 15, 2024, KTL said the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading (SGX-ST) will proceed to delist the company. This came as KTL failed to meet the listing rule requirement and exit the watch list, even after an extension till June 30.
The company was placed on the watch list on Dec 4, 2019. This happens when companies record losses for the three latest consecutive financial years and have an average daily market cap of under $40 million over the last six months. As the company will be delisted, KTL or its controlling shareholders must provide a reasonable exit offer to shareholders.
KTL said it would inform SGX-ST about the exit offer as soon as practicable and no later than one month from May 14, which was the date it received the delisting notification. THE BUSINESS TIMES
