One Asia Investment Partners' former managing director charged

Singapore

A 41-year-old former chief investment officer and managing director of the now-defunct fund manager One Asia Investment Partners (OAIP) was on Thursday charged with two counts of engaging in acts that were likely to defraud investors of a fixed income fund.

Singaporean Sun Weiyeh has been accused of selling the bonds of a company at lower prices to a securities dealer, and then repurchasing them at slightly higher prices. In doing so, he is alleged to have defrauded the investors of a fund managed by OAIP.

He was said to have sold the bonds MIEHOL 180206 Mie Holdings Corp 2013/2018 on Jan 19, 2016 at US$25.375 to Pareto Securities, despite there being an offer for the bonds at about US$33.

Following this, he allegedly bought them back, through Pareto Securities, into the Arion Asia Credit Fund - Investment Grade Bond Fund II at US$25.50.

Sun allegedly did the same to the bonds MIEHOL 190425 Mie Holdings Corp 2014/2019: He sold them on the same day at US$21.875 to Pareto Securities although there was an offer for the bonds at about US$32.

He was next said to have bought back the fixed income securities into the Arion Asia Credit Fund - Investment Grade Bond Fund II at US$22. This alleged offence was said to have defrauded the investors of the Arion Asia Credit Fund - High Yield Basis Fund.

Sun's counsel said he had just been briefed and would need to take instructions from the accused, including making representations where necessary.

Sun is out on bail of S$150,000; the next court mention has been fixed for Nov 26.

He could be fined up to S$250,000, jailed up to seven years, or both fined and jailed, for each count if convicted.

Arion Asia Credit Fund - Investment Grade Bond Fund II and Arion Asia Credit Fund - High Yield Basis Fund were managed by OAIP, which lost its capital markets services licence in April 2017 after it was ordered by the court to be wound up.

Sun applied to wind up the company - in his capacity as creditor of OAIP - in February 2017, a month after he left the company.

The company's website listed him as being responsible for investments. He also had oversight of the funds and portfolios at OAIP.

Prior to joining OAIP, he was with Greylock Capital Management, a global credit hedge fund in New York. He led Greylock's Asian expansion in 2009 when the Asian office was established in Singapore, and was chief executive of its Singapore office, OAIP said in its website.

Sun was a member of the international debt capital markets group at Bear Stearns Companies before his stint at Greylock.

He covered origination and execution of fixed-income offerings for sovereigns and corporates in Asia and the Middle East.

His career started at Standard Chartered Bank, where he was a management associate focusing on structured asset financing within corporate finance and wholesale banking.

Sun graduated from Nanyang Technological University with a master of science in financial engineering and a bachelor of science in computer engineering.