Natural Cool ex-MD charged with share price manipulation

Singapore

WHEN Natural Cool's managing director and chief corporate officer Wong Leon Keat stepped down in early January, the reason given in the bourse filing was he would "spend more time in dealing with his personal business commitments".

In that filing, it was stated that the Catalist-listed air-conditioning company's sponsor, "to the best of its knowledge", was "satisfied" that there were no other material reasons for the resignation.

Wong was hauled to the State Courts on Tuesday where he was charged with 19 offences, mostly for allegedly creating a false appearance with respect to the share price of another listed company - oil and gas player Gaylin Holdings (now Amos Group).

Wong was said to have put in buy orders and/or purchased small lots of Gaylin - usually 100 shares - at a price much higher than the then-trading price, mostly near the close of trading hours, between November 2015 and October 2016.

He allegedly did this 17 times during the period, and has been charged for each action.

In the regulatory filing on Wong's resignation, it was stated that he owned a 9.3 per cent stake in Natural Cool, was a partner in an accounting firm, and was a director of 11 other companies. Gaylin was not listed among them.

Wong further faces an allegation of deceiving UOB Kay Hian by not disclosing his beneficial interest of 50 per cent of the Gaylin shares in the trading account of Lim Teck Chuan maintained with the brokerage, while Wong purchased Gaylin shares between May 2012 and May 2015.

The charge sheet has no information about the identity of Mr Lim nor what his total stake in Gaylin was at that period of time.

Wong became a director of Natural Cool after the board was ousted in early 2017, in a requisition made by his wife Edi Ng and another shareholder.

This came after a failed attempt by Natural Cool's then single-largest shareholder Lim Teck Chuan to remove the board in 2016. Mr Lim runs Catalist-listed electrical products retailer Choo Chiang Holdings.

It is unknown if the Mr Lim stated in the charge sheet refers to Choo Chiang's Mr Lim.

The remaining charge that the 44-year-old Wong faces is in relation to allegedly giving false information to a Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) officer on Aug 23, 2017. He allegedly lied to the officer that Khwaja Asif Rahman had never given him any mandate for the latter's trading accounts. The information would cause the CAD officer not to investigate whether the account-holder had authorised Wong to operate his accounts.

For the charge of not disclosing his stakes to UOB Kay Hian and for each charge of creating a misleading appearance for Gaylin's share price, Wong could be fined up to S$250,000, jailed up to seven years or both.

Wong has been granted bail of S$80,000, and the case has been adjourned to March 24.