Landing page banner

On 26 May 2026, 63-year-old Wong Chow Lin @ Benjamin Wong (“Wong”) pleaded guilty to false trading and was sentenced to four weeks’ imprisonment while his former trading representative, 47-year-old Gillian Isabel Siow Siang Sok (“Siow”), pleaded guilty to intentionally aiding Wong in his false trading and was sentenced to a fine of $135,000. Both were each convicted of a false trading offence under Section 197(1)(b) of the Securities and Futures Act (Cap 289) (“SFA”). 

Background

Wong admitted that, from 24 February 2017 to 12 January 2018, he traded in the shares of SGX-Catalist listed Eurosports Global Limited (“Eurosports”), for the purpose of artificially increasing the share price. Wong’s manipulative trades served to avoid margin calls and to improve his margin valuations, as Wong then held Eurosports shares, which formed the bulk of the collateral he pledged to his brokerage firm to obtain credit for share purchases.

Wong increased the closing price of Eurosports shares either by i) purchasing Eurosports shares at or higher than the prevailing best ask price when suitable ask orders became available during the trading day or ii) “marking the close” shortly before or during the closing routine. “Marking the close” refers to the practice of placing orders to buy securities near or at market close with the objective of artificially fixing the closing price higher. Wong’s purchases caused Eurosports’ shares to close at prices between 2% and 22% higher than they would otherwise have on these 77 days. As a result of Wong’s manipulative trades, he avoided margin calls on 31 days, reduced the impact of his margin calls on 16 days, and improved his margin valuations on another 30 days.

Wong placed majority of his orders for Eurosports shares through Siow, his former trading representative with the then CIMB Securities (Singapore) Pte Ltd, who was assigned to service Wong’s accounts at the time of the offences. Siow admitted to aiding Wong in his price manipulation by monitoring his margin levels in his margin trading account and providing calculations regarding the specific price levels of Eurosports shares at which margin calls might be triggered, among others. 

This is not Wong’s first brush with false trading laws. Wong had previously paid a civil penalty of $50,000 to the Monetary Authority of Singapore (“MAS”) in July 2011 for an unrelated contravention of Section 197(1) of the SFA. 

The duo’s convictions were the result of a joint investigation carried out by the Commercial Affairs Department of the Singapore Police Force and MAS, following a referral from the Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited.