Two futures traders get prison sentences in Singapore following fraud conviction
Jimmy Ng and Erik Ng were traders of Joerik Financial Pte Ltd, a proprietary trading company and an SGX-DT trading member.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has earlier today announced that two futures traders of proprietary trading firm Joerik Financial Pte Ltd got prison sentences after having been convicted of fraud charges.
At the material time, Jimmy Ng Kian Bin and Mr Erik Ng Song Hann were directors of Joerik, which is a trading member of Singapore Exchange Derivatives Trading Limited (SGX-DT).
On July 24, 2015 and July 27, 2015, Mr Jimmy Ng entered and deleted a series of buy and sell orders for SGX MSCI Singapore Index July 2015 Futures Contracts (SGN15) which he had no intention to fill. This created the illusion of buying or selling interest in SGN15 and induced other market participants to trade against him on the opposite side of his fictitious orders, at prices that were more favourable to him. Mr Jimmy Ng had this way employed a scheme to defraud these market participants with the fictitious orders.
On or around July 28, 2015, in response to a query from SGX-DT on Mr Jimmy Ng’s trading activities in SGN15, Jimmy Ng conspired with Mr Erik Ng and Mr Chai to furnish a false reply to SGX-DT. Jimmy Ng had this way provided a false statement to SGX-DT with the intent to deceive it about his trading activities in SGN15.
Further, on August 29, 2016, Mr Erik Ng traded in SGX MSCI Taiwan Index August 2016 Futures Contracts (TWQ16) in the same manner as in July 2015. He had thereby employed a scheme to defraud the market participants who traded against him with the fictitious orders.
In September 2016, in response to a query from SGX-DT concerning Erik Ng’s trading activities in TWQ16, Mr Erik Ng conspired with Mr Chai to give a false reply to SGX-DT. The reply claimed that Erik Ng was engaged in arbitrage trading between the Taiwan Stock Exchange Capitalization Weighted Stock Index (TAIEX) futures contracts and the mini-TAIEX futures contracts. This way, Erik Ng provided a false statement to SGX-DT with the intent to deceive it about his trading activities in TWQ16.
Jimmy Ng was charged under section 210(a) of the Securities and Futures Act (SFA) for employing a scheme to defraud others in the trading of futures contracts and under section 330(1)(a) of the SFA for furnishing a false statement to SGX-DT . He pleaded guilty and was convicted on three charges. Two remaining charges under section 210(a) of the SFA were taken into consideration for the purpose of sentencing. Mr Jimmy Ng was sentenced to a total of 16 weeks’ imprisonment for the charges.
Erik Ng was charged under section 210(a) of the SFA for employing a scheme to defraud others in the trading of futures contracts and under section 330(1)(a) of the SFA for furnishing a false statement to SGX-DT. He pleaded guilty and was convicted on two charges, with two remaining charges taken into consideration for the purpose of sentencing. Erik Ng was sentenced to 4 weeks’ imprisonment.
The court proceedings against a third individual in the case, Mr Joseph Chai Ming Leong, are ongoing.
