SINGAPORE: A man and his broker were on Tuesday (May 26) convicted for inflating the value of the shares of luxury car distributor Eurosports Global in Singapore.
Wong Chow Lin, also known as Benjamin Wong, pleaded guilty to false trading and was sentenced to four weeks’ jail, the police said in a news release on Wednesday.
His trading representative, 47-year-old Gillian Isabel Siow Siang Sok, pleaded guilty to intentionally aiding him in false trading and was fined S$135,000 (US$105,000).
Wong, 63, had traded in the shares of Eurosports Global to push up the closing price of its shares on 77 trading days between Feb 24, 2017 and Jan 12, 2018,
He had wanted to avoid margin calls and improve his margin valuations as Eurosports shares comprised the bulk of the collateral he pledged to his brokerage firm to obtain credit for share purchases.
Wong increased the closing price of Eurosports shares by either buying shares at or above the best available asking price during the trading day, or by “marking the close” – placing buy orders near or at the end of trading to artificially push up the closing price.
His purchases caused Eurosports’ shares to close at prices between 2 per cent and 22 per cent higher than they otherwise would have.
As a result, he avoided margin calls on 31 days, reduced the impact of his margin calls on 16 days, and improved his margin valuations on another 30 days.
Wong placed a majority of his orders for Eurosports shares through Siow, who was at the time with CIMB Securities (Singapore).
Siow admitted to assisting Wong in his price manipulation by monitoring his margin levels in his margin trading account and providing calculations of the specific price levels of Eurosports shares at which margin calls might be triggered, among others.