The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has announced the first successful conviction for fraudulent over-the-counter bond trading under the country's Securities and Futures Act, as Sun Weiyeh, a former fund manager and director of One Asia Investment Partners (OAIP) was sent down for six months.
Weiyeh was convicted on 11 April 2024 after being found guilty of selling two OTC bonds "at lower prices from Fund A to another OAIP fund (Fund B) of which he was the majority investor, while knowing that there were earlier available bids at higher prices. [He] subsequently sold the two bonds to the market at a profit. [His] act caused a US$342,500 loss to investors in Fund A," the MAS stated.
According to the case, the fraud involved use of the Bloomberg messaging system. This was used by Weiyeh to solicit bids from market participants.
"He then used lower bid prices as the reference prices to sell the two OTC bonds from Fund A to Fund B via pass-through trades through an intermediary, instead of selling the bonds to a market participant who had offered higher prices or using those higher prices as the reference prices for the pass-through trades."
The guilty finding came following a 26 day trial. This followed an investigation conducted by the MAS and the Commercial Affairs Department of the Singapore Police Force.
Loo Siew Yee, assistant managing director (Policy, Payments and Financial Crime), MAS, said: "As a director and portfolio manager of the fund management company, Mr Sun owed a duty to its investors to act in their interest at all times. MAS will take to task persons who abuse their position in the financial sector for personal gain, to the detriment of investors."
