SINGAPORE, May 22 — The joint trial involving a Malaysian businessman over the 2013 penny stocks crash today centred on a spreadsheet data which did not match the instructions given via phone and the trade transactions.

On the 19^th day of the trial, John Soh’s counsel Narayanan Sreenivasan cited a few occasions where there were no phone calls from Soh to the dealer but yet transactions had been carried out.

Sreenivasan highlighted the fact during cross-examination before Judge Hoo Sheau Peng with the 11^th witness Ong Kah Chye, a dealer in Maybank Kim Eng Securities Pte Ltd.

Ong was the trading representative for four trading accounts belonging to two individuals Peter Chen and Tan Boon Kiat, as well as two companies Magnus Energy Group and Friendship Bridge Holding.

By filtering the spreadsheet, Sreenivasan pointed out an occasion where transactions were carried out on "the same day, same counter, two accounts, one with a call, one without a call”.

Sreenivasan: When you were giving or looking at all these documents (spreadsheet) for the first time, did you point out to anyone that there are trades that have got no phone calls?

Ong: Yes.

Sreenivasan: Now, if there are trades with no phone calls from John Soh, do you agree it is possible that instructions for those trades may have come from someone else?

Ong: My recollection was besides John there were no other people called during that period of time and, further, there is always a possibility that the instruction being given to me earlier. I can’t recollect, but I think I point out that there were trades with no matching phone calls to the IO (investigation officer).

Sreenivasan: It is not in your conditional statement, right?

Ong: Yes. According to deputy public prosecutor Peter Koy, the spreadsheet "is not a comprehensive record of all calls of every single number”.

"There are limitations. Some calls are not captured and for example landlines… with landlines and it is based on only numbers that we know of and available telephone call records.”

Soh and Quah Su-Ling pleaded not guilty to 189 and 178 charges respectively in relation to the Asiasons, Blumont and LionGold’s stocks crash six years ago. — Bernama