Samtrade FX placed under judicial management, US$167m in assets seized

SIX entities related to online trading platform Samtrade FX have been placed under judicial management, following the Singapore authorities' probe into their potential offences under local securities laws.

In a hearing on Jan 28, the Singapore High Court granted Samtrade FX's chief executive officer Goh Nai De's application to appoint Goh Thien Phong from GTP Advisory PAC and Chan Kheng Tek from PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory Services as interim judicial managers.

In his affidavit submitted to the court, Goh Nai De, also known as Sam Goh, claimed that his entities held approximately US$270 million of clients' funds in cash, gold and cryptocurrency wallets.

The police have seized about US$167 million in assets, and are still trying to trace and find the rest of them, the court heard.

As Samtrade FX and its related entities have not been able to pay their debts, and in light of the authorities' investigations, the directors of these companies have deemed it in the interest of stakeholders for their companies to be placed judicial management.

Samtrade FX is known to offer contracts for differences products under various underlying classes of investments. It also has a copy trading platform trademarked CopySam.

Its parent company and related entities are not licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and have been on the MAS Investor Alert List since July last year.

These are the 6 entities and their respective functions listed in Sam Goh's affidavit:

• S.A.M. Trade (V) Limited, formerly known as Samtrade FX, which was incorporated in the Republic of Vanuatu in July 2016. It provides brokerage services;
• Samtrade FX Limited, which was incorporated in St Vincent and Grenadines (SVG) in January 2019 with an issued capital of US$50,000, also for providing brokerage services;
• Samtrade Custodian Limited, incorporated in SVG in December 2018 with an issued capital for US$50,000. While set up to offer a number of trading and brokerage-related activities, it has so far only held monies and acccounts with its liquidity providers, Sam Goh claims;
• S.A.M. Fintech Pte Ltd, incorporated in Singapore in July 2019 with an issued capital of S$10. Its principal business includes management consultancy and information technology services (except cybersecurity) to the group of companies. S.A.M. Fintech holds 18 per cent of the original shares in Zana Capital, which has a capital markets services licence to carry out fund-management activities in Singapore. It also holds 10 per cent of ordinary shares in Volopa Capital, a company authorised to carry out certain investment activities in the UK;
• Samtrade Custodian Pte Ltd, an exempt private company limited by shares incorporated in Singapore, which provides management consultancy services to the group of companies. Its issued capital is S$10,000;
• S.A.M. Marketing Private Limited, also an exempt private company limited by shares incorporated in Singapore in July 2019, with S$10 in issued capital. Its principal business includes providing management consultancy and marketing services to the group of companies. S.A.M. Marketing holds 100 per cent of the shares in S.A.M. Marketing (Hong Kong) Limited.

Sam Goh is chief executive of S.A.M. Trade (V) and Samtrade FX, and a director in all six companies.

Another individual named Goh Li Xing is also listed as a director in S.A.M. Fintech, Samtrade custodian Pte Ltd, and S.A.M. Marketing.

The current investigations have prompted many clients to withdraw from their accounts on the online trading platform, but Samtrade FX and S.A.M. Trade (V) are unable to pay these withdrawals, Sam Goh had said. The management and officers have also been unable to access the relevant accounts due to ongoing investigations.

He also said that S.A.M. Fintech and S.A.M. Marketing have approximately S$360,000 and S$250,000 respectively in outstanding liabilities, but both do not have sufficient cash to meet the liabilities.

In their application to appoint the interim judicial managers, the companies are represented by a team of lawyers from Rajah & Tann, led by managing partner Patrick Ang.

Sam Goh said in a statement dated Jan 3, following the announcement by the police and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on investigations into his companies, that his team has appointed Rajah & Tann to advise them "on all legal matters relating to the ongoing investigations".

MAS and the police said on Jan 3 that 3 men aged between 31 and 36 had been arrested in connection with the investigation.

A pre-trial conference was held on Thursday (Feb 10) and the interim judicial managers' report is expected to be available by early April.

The case is scheduled to be heard again in court on June 27.

Retail investors have started an online petition calling on the authorities to lift the suspension of accounts they have with Samtrade FX, so that they can withdraw their funds. It had collected almost 3,000 signatures as at 9.15pm on Friday.

The petition, listed on change.org, states that a "good portion" of retail investors who have used Samtrade FX are retirees. Another significant group comprises office workers who were recently laid off.

The petition read: "As Samtrade FX's major investigation is geared towards their fault in carrying on business in regulated activities without a capital markets services licence, we assume that it is more of an administrative issue, rather than embezzlement or liquidity issue. Therefore, we would like to make an appeal to MAS to allow Samtrade FX to open the suspension for clients, especially their overseas clients, to make withdrawals."