Indonesian tycoon Kris Wiluan pleads guilty to three charges of market rigging

INDONESIAN oil and gas tycoon Kris Wiluan pleaded guilty to three counts of market rigging offences on Wednesday at Singapore's State Courts.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Kevin Yong has applied for three other similar charges to be taken into consideration for the purpose of sentencing, according to court documents.

While accepting that a custodial sentence need not be imposed on Wiluan, Singapore prosecutors are seeking a "high" global fine of at least S$600,000, comprising a fine of at least S$200,000 for each of the three charges.

"This sentence would sufficiently reflect the court's disapprobation for market rigging offences and serve to deter others who seek to manipulate our securities markets for their own ends," Mr Yong submitted.

Wiluan is represented by Senior Counsel Jimmy Yim and Mahesh Rai of Drew & Napier. In the mitigation plea for the accused, his lawyers submitted that Wiluan has a clean record and has fully cooperated with the authorities. His early plea of guilt also shows his true remorse and contrition, they added. They submitted that Wiluan should not be punished with a more severe fine than other more egregious offenders.

The hearing has been adjourned to Wednesday afternoon when District Judge Marvin Bay is expected to deliver the sentence.

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In August last year, Wiluan, of Singapore-listed KS Energy - an insolvent firm under judicial management - was slapped with 112 charges related to the violation of Section 197 of the Securities and Futures Act, which deals with false trading and market-rigging transactions.

The 72-year-old Singapore permanent resident and founder of Indonesian conglomerate Citramas Group was accused of directing his employee to instruct a trading representative from CIMB Securities (Singapore) to execute trades in the shares of KS Energy through the trading account of Pacific One Energy, a company controlled by Wiluan.

This was done on various occasions between December 2014 and September 2016 to allegedly push up KS Energy's share price.

Wiluan, ranked Indonesia's 40th richest man by Forbes back in 2009 with a personal net worth of US$240 million, was also accused of instructing a CIMB Securities trading representative servicing the trading account of Pacific One to execute trades in KS Energy's shares, allegedly with the aim of pushing up its price, several times between May and July 2016, and in June 2015.

Last October, the court granted an order to place KS Energy and its key operating subsidiary KS Drilling under judicial management following an application by OCBC. OCBC's bid to place the firm and a key unit under court-supervised management came after it had sent letters of demand to KS Energy, KS Drilling and six other subsidiaries for a US$230.7 million secured-term loan and a S$5 million unsecured bridging loan, both owed by KS Drilling.

Indonesia's Wiluan family had twice sought to fend off OCBC's judicial management bid in court but failed as the court ruled that the firms were a clear case of balance sheet insolvency. Last week, in an announcement on the Singapore Exchange, KS Energy's judicial managers Andrew Grimmett and Lim Loo Khoon of Deloitte & Touche said the judicial management orders have been extended for another six months to October this year.