Goh Chok Tong’s son among 4 men charged with false trading

SINGAPORE: Goh Jin Hian, the former chief executive officer of investment holding company New Silkroutes Group, was charged on Wednesday (Sep 20) with false trading offences.

The 54-year-old is the son of Emeritus Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong. He was handed 39 charges under the Securities and Futures Act.

Amidst his charges, Goh is accused of conspiring with the other three men to create a misleading appearance of the price of New Silkroutes’ securities on 31 trading days between February 2018 and August 2018.

The alleged price manipulative orders and trades include share buybacks conducted through New Silkroutes’ corporate trading account. Goh is also accused of pushing up the price of New Silkroutes’ securities by placing orders and executing trades using his DBS Private Bank investment account. This allegedly occurred between August 2018 and December 2018.

Goh was charged along with three other men linked to New Silkroutes: Kelvyn Oo Cheong Kwan, 52, former executive director and chief corporate officer at New Silkroutes; 54-year-old William Teo Thiam Chuan, a former finance director at the group; and 40-year-old Huang Yiwen, a commercial market maker engaged by New Silkroutes.

In Oct 2020, the healthcare provider announced that it had appointed Mr Darrell Lim Chee Lek as acting independent non-executive chairman of the board with effect from the same day. Mr Lim took over from Goh, who also announced that he had resigned as chairman. Goh’s role as non-independent and non-executive chairman had been announced earlier in 2020. He has been with the company since July 2015.

Mr Lim was appointed to the board on Aug 1, 2020, as an independent non-executive director and became the lead independent director this month. He was formerly the head of investor relations at the Singapore Exchange.

According to a report in Business Times, other members of the board include executive director Shen Yuyun, independent non-executive director Vivien Chen Chou Mei Mei, non-independent non-executive director Andrew Chua Soon Kian, and independent non-executive director Alex Chua Siong Kiat.

In Singapore Exchange filings in Oct 2020, the company revealed that both Goh and Teo had resigned from their posts with immediate effect.

It said that Goh resigned “to devote more time to his personal affairs”, while Teo quit “to focus on personal matters and to pursue other interests”.

Another director who recently left the company is Kelvyn Oo.

Goh, Teo and Oo will return to court next month.

Of the four men, Huang is the only one who might receive more charges, the prosecution told the court. He will return to court for a further mention in November.

If convicted, the men face a jail term of up to seven years, a fine of up to S$250,000, or both per charge. /TISG