On 28 October 2024, a 46-year-old Singaporean man, Oh Wee Hian (“Oh”), was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment for employing an extensive scheme to defraud a Contract for Difference (“CFD”) provider. This sentence follows his conviction of two charges under Section 201(a) of the Securities and Futures Act, with four other similar charges taken into consideration for the purposes of sentencing.
CFDs are derivative contracts which allow a trader to trade on the price movements of underlying assets, without having to own the underlying assets (for e.g., stocks listed on the Singapore Exchange ("SGX")).
Oh defrauded the CFD provider, IG Asia Pte. Ltd. (“IG Asia”), on 215 occasions between August 2020 and March 2021. His scheme involved the placement of orders in six different underlying securities listed on the SGX, with no intention for these orders to be fulfilled. Instead, Oh’s purpose was to use these orders to artificially increase or decrease the prices of the corresponding CFDs to his advantage. He would thereby buy the CFDs at artificially depressed prices and thereafter sell them at artificially inflated prices, thereby allowing him to profit at the expense of IG Asia. He would delete his orders in the SGX market before they were fulfilled. In total, Oh earned illicit profits of more than $250,000. Oh made full restitution to IG Asia after he was charged.
Oh’s conviction was the result of a joint investigation carried out by the Commercial Affairs Department of the Singapore Police Force and the Monetary Authority of Singapore, following a referral from the Singapore Exchange Regulation Pte Ltd. This investigation was also supplemented by the analysis of Suspicious Transaction Reports and showcases the usefulness of financial intelligence in investigations. In the course of your trade, profession, business or employment, any knowledge or reasonable suspicion of any property directly or indirectly linked to criminal conduct should be reported to the authorities as soon as reasonably practicable.
SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
29 October 2024 @ 10:40 PM