Blumont Mayhem, no way to charge culprits....

TopSage

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Stock was clearly manipulated using cornering plus rumor plus hype up business plans technique.

In Singapore, we do not have the set of "wire fraud" ambiguous laws to presecute
the manipulators of this stock.

1. They did not falsify accounts.
2. Those business deals hyped up as they seem
in mining etc can jjust be brushed off as business risks.
3. The conrnering and ramp up are done by distributed
coordinated means involving small cell groups and no way of proving anything.
4. There were some late disclosures of significant shareholders dumping stock...
such offense only carry a small fine.

So we don't have the laws to charge the people behind this. Not only that SGX and regulators will
not even be bothered to do anything.
In other words we do not have sufficient laws to cover these type of thing and people will get ripped of
again and again.

Contrary to people's view of Singapore being an orderly and law abiding place where they catch people
for chewing hum, the financial sector is insufficiently regulated.

There is a lack of an equivalent SEC

How should these crimes be tackled.

1. Look at the changes made to SEC during Joseph Kennedy time with the organisation to be more effective
in pursuing market manipulators.
2. The SEC in recent insider case involving Tamil American hedge fund manager, Raj Rajaratnam, was
caught after months of investigative work to uncover his insider trading syndicate. The effort to break this illegal
ring was tremendous and Singapore has no regulator with the expertise to do something like this....and does not seem
to bother.

3. As a result, Malaysian syndicates operate from right under the nose of SGX, MAS, CPIB.
...and we don't even have adequate laws to presecute them even if we caught them.
In the first place, we don't even have the means to catch them.


How much was lots with the collapse of Blumont, LionGold, Asiaones? Roughly $6B in capitalisation and several billion
of that hard earned money of Singaporeans.
Are investors not worth protecting from crime and fraud? .... where is the deep expertise to tackle such fraud?

By investing in law enforcement in this area, it can save Singaporeans from lots of losses and grief...against international
syndicates. Almost nobody was persecuted when S-shares collapsed because our govt and authorities are only interested in
growing the financial sector not the protection of Singaporeans.
 
I got out of the local market because it was getting expensive investing here. I've no regrets whatsoever. Each time there is a trading fiasco I breath a sigh of relied that I'm out. It's hard enough with the current market conditions & I don't need the extra aggravation.
 
Grave digger to gold digger: Singapore business shifts feed governance worries

Thu, Oct 10 2013

By Anshuman Daga

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A funeral parlor switches into gold mining; a steel trader turns into a property developer; and a food packaging firm ventures into resources.

Reverse takeovers and shifting corporate business strategies on Singapore's stock market have come under the spotlight in the wake of a recent collapse in the share prices of three companies listed on Southeast Asia's biggest bourse.

One of the companies, Blumont Group Ltd ...lost as much as S$6.2 billion ($4.96 billion) in market value in the past week. Prior to that, Blumont had surged as much as 12-fold this year, making it Singapore's top performer. The company, which listed in mid-2000, has shifted its focus between investment - most recently in mining companies - property development and sterilized food and medicine packaging.

The changes in business operations and the use of reverse takeovers - where a private firm buys a public company usually to bypass an often lengthy listing process - and its impact on the broader market risk undermining the credibility of one of Asia's biggest financial and regulation centers.
"It's one thing to change businesses like that if you're a closed-end investment fund, but if it's a listed company and it keeps chopping and changing then that raises all sorts of governance concerns because as a minority shareholder you don't then know what you're a shareholder of," said Jamie Allen, secretary general of the Asian Corporate Governance Association.

The market operator, Singapore Exchange Ltd .....had already toughened its listing rules after a string of blow-ups at locally-listed Chinese stocks, known as S-chips, in 2008 and 2011. At the same time, it has seen few big-ticket listings......

"Sometimes, these things (new ventures) can go either way for the smaller investors," said Jimmy Ho, president of the Society of Remisiers (Singapore). "It's better if the relevant authorities can do adequate due diligence beforehand."...................

Broker UOB Kay Hian last week imposed trading limits on many small cap stocks which it reckoned were over-valued after a sharp run-up in prices. Those included Blumont, Asiasons Capital Ltd ...and LionGold Corp Ltd......

Wild price swings in smaller stocks are fairly routine in a free market that has no circuit breakers. The SGX has opened public consultations on proposed circuit breakers for the securities market and plans to introduce these by the year-end.

"In other markets, if a stock price jumps 20 percent in one trading session, you'll probably call a trading halt and then find out what happened," said NRA Capital's Scully.

In a rare move, the SGX suspended trading in Blumont, Asiasons and LionGold on Friday after the sharp price falls, and later declared them as "designated securities" - meaning investors cannot short-sell them and buyers must pay upfront in cash. Trading later resumed, but under certain conditions.

Last year, Britain's financial regulator proposed reforms of its listing rules to close loopholes allowing reverse takeovers, in a bid to better protect investors.

SGX's dual role as market operator and regulator has in the past raised questions about a conflict of interest as it regulates listed companies that are also its clients.

"The question is whether they are able to regulate and profit from the market at the same time, which seems to be impossible," said Ho at the Society of Remisiers.

In a letter to the Straits Times newspaper on Wednesday, one reader wrote: "Why did the Singapore Exchange, as the regulator, not step in earlier to calm penny stock trading when prices rose from a few cents to more than S$2?"

"It was left to the broking houses to assume the role of regulator and impose trading curbs."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/10/us-singapore-smallcaps-idUSBRE99906620131010

Well the 60% has certainly got what they want-with MRT frequent breakdowns,internet/cable TV/mobile disruptions, haze, dengue, ponding and Pinoys stealing in broad daylight (jobs,ect2) amongst other things.
 
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