CEO of luxury car distributor Eurosports Global fined for false share trading

Goh Kim San's lawyers said the CEO acted out of "vanity, not deception" as he disliked the sight of the flat lining of an inactive share counter.

Melvin Goh Kim San was charged on Aug 5, 2025, over the false trading of company shares. (File photo: Scorpio Electric website)

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SINGAPORE: Over three years, the chief executive officer of listed luxury car distribution company Eurosports Global instructed others to conduct trades in the company's shares.

Goh Kim San, a 69-year-old Singaporean, was fined S$210,000 (US$166,110) by a court on Wednesday (Sep 9) for three counts of false trading.

He paid the full fine. He would have had to serve 21 months' jail in lieu of payment if he had failed to pay.

Goh, who is also known as Melvin Goh, pleaded guilty to three charges under the Securities and Futures Act for false trading. Another 16 charges were taken into consideration.

The court heard that Eurosports Global has been listed on the Catalist Board of the Singapore Exchange (SGX) since January 2014.

Between January 2014 and July 2021, Goh held share trading accounts with brokerage firms.

In addition to using his own trading accounts, he caused the trading accounts of three other people to be used to trade Eurosports shares.

Two of them were his friends, while one was a former sales manager at a subsidiary of Eurosports.

Goh caused buy and sell orders of Eurosports shares to be placed on 42 occasions across 22 trading days.

He knew this was likely to create a false or misleading appearance of active trading but did so to avoid making disclosures for his share purchases as CEO as he found it cumbersome.

This was on top of his dislike of the inactivity in the share counter.

The prosecution sought a total fine of S$250,000 for Goh, noting that the offences were committed over a sustained period, with cross trades occurring 31 times across 13 trading days.

While Goh did not directly profit, he was motivated by self-interest and personal gain, said Deputy Public Prosecutors Magdalene Huang and Wong Shiau Yin.

They said Goh was motivated by a desire to avoid a "flat line" on the share counter of Eurosports, as he "disliked the appearance of inactivity".

Goh was represented by Ms Melanie Ho, Mr Tang Shangwei and Ms Neo Yi Ling from WongPartnership.

They sought a fine of S$180,000 instead, saying this was Goh's first brush with the law.

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS: LAWYERS

The defence lawyers said Goh started from humble beginnings, with only an O-Level education. After that, he worked in his father's motor workshop and learned the automobile trade.

He began Eurosports in 1998, initially distributing only the Lotus brand.

The lawyers said Eurosports was a relatively illiquid counter, with the average daily traded volume of shares at the time of the offences being 447,928. This was only 0.18 per cent of the total issued shares.

They said that Goh likened the absence of trading activity to a flat line in the intensive care unit – a symbol of death.

"For the company whose listing represented the culmination of his life's work, Mr Goh wanted to create 'blips' in trading activity to avoid this 'flat line'," said the lawyers.

They said Goh was motivated by "vanity, not deception".

They added that there was a "limited scale" of market distortion and no evidence of any investor loss or any financial benefit to Goh.

The lawyers added that the proceedings have been "hanging over" Goh's head for about four years since investigations began, and this has taken a significant emotional and psychological toll on him.

Negative publicity has also affected the company's relationships with its investors and counterparties, they said.

For false trading, he could have been jailed for up to seven years, fined up to S$250,000, or both.

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吴金山的律师表示，这位首席执行官的行为是出于“虚荣心，而非欺骗”，因为他不喜欢看到不活跃的股票价格一成不变的景象。

Melvin Goh Kim San于2025年8月5日被控虚假交易公司股票。（资料图片：Scorpio Electric网站）

这段音频由人工智能工具生成。

新加坡：三年多来，上市豪华汽车经销公司 Eurosports Global 的首席执行官指示他人进行公司股票交易。

69岁的新加坡人吴金山（Goh Kim San）因三项虚假交易罪名，于周三（9月9日）被法庭罚款21万新加坡元（166110美元）。

他缴纳了全部罚款。如果他不缴纳罚款，则需服刑21个月以代替支付罚款。

吴先生（又名Melvin Goh）承认违反《证券及期货法》的三项虚假交易指控。另有16项指控被纳入考虑范围。

法庭获悉，Eurosports Global 自 2014 年 1 月起在新加坡交易所 (SGX) 凯利板上市。

从 2014 年 1 月到 2021 年 7 月，吴先生在多家经纪公司开设了股票交易账户。

除了使用自己的交易账户外，他还让另外三个人的交易账户被用来交易欧洲体育股票。

其中两人是他的朋友，一人是 Eurosports 旗下子公司的前销售经理。

Goh 在 22 个交易日内共进行了 42 次 Eurosports 股票的买卖指令。

他知道这样做可能会造成积极交易的虚假或误导性假象，但他这样做是为了避免披露他作为首席执行官的股票购买情况，因为他觉得披露很麻烦。

除此之外，他还对股票交易市场的不活跃状态感到不满。

检方要求对吴某处以总计 25 万新元的罚款，并指出这些违法行为持续了相当长一段时间，在 13 个交易日内发生了 31 次交叉交易。

副检察官黄玛格达琳和黄晓燕表示，虽然吴某没有直接获利，但他的动机是出于自身利益和个人得失。

他们说，吴先生这样做是为了避免欧洲体育的股价出现“平稳走势”，因为他“不喜欢看起来毫无生气”。

Goh 的代表是 WongPartnership 的 Melanie Ho 女士、Tang Shangwei 先生和 Neo Yi Ling 女士。

他们反而要求对吴某处以 18 万新元的罚款，并称这是吴某第一次触犯法律。

卑微的起点：律师

辩护律师称，吴先生出身卑微，仅有O水准学历。之后，他在父亲的汽车修理厂工作，学习了汽车制造技术。

他于 1998 年创立了 Eurosports 公司，最初只经销 Lotus 品牌的产品。

律师表示，Eurosports 股票流动性相对较差，案发时其日均交易量为 447,928 股，仅占已发行股票总数的 0.18%。

他们说，吴作栋将交易活动的停滞比作重症监护室里的一条直线——死亡的象征。

律师们表示：“对于这家上市代表着他毕生心血的公司而言，吴先生希望在交易活动中制造一些‘波动’，以避免出现这种‘平稳线’。”

他们说吴作栋的动机是“虚荣心，而不是欺骗”。

他们补充说，市场扭曲的程度“有限”，没有证据表明投资者遭受任何损失，也没有证据表明吴某从中获利。

律师们补充说，自调查开始以来，诉讼程序已经“悬在”吴先生头上大约四年了，这对他的情感和心理造成了巨大的影响。

他们表示，负面宣传也影响了公司与投资者和交易对手的关系。

他因虚假交易罪可能被判处最高七年监禁，罚款最高 25 万新元，或两者并罚。

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