New: You can now listen to articles.SINGAPORE: The former chief executive officer of now-defunct steel manufacturer and trader Oriental Group Limited was sentenced to nine years' jail on Tuesday for leading an elaborate market-rigging scheme that contributed to the company's eventual demise.
He became bankrupt in March 2017 and left Singapore for Malaysia in May 2017, even though he knew that the board of OGL had lodged a police report. Lee was appointed CEO of OGL in 2014. He was paid S$240,000 in salary and S$20,000 in variable bonus for the financial year 2015. At least 50 accounts were used to carry out the scheme - 40 of which were opened on Lee's instructions for use in the scheme between December 2014 and December 2015.
Because of the scheme, OGL's share price appeared to be increasing. It rose from a period-low of S$0.030 on Apr 8, 2015 to a period-high of S$0.134 in December 2015, before closing at S$0.127 on Jan 14, 2016. A few days later, OGL published an announcement concerning unauthorised transactions involving two subsidiaries of its company that were unrelated to the scheme and requested for the trading halt to be lifted.