Singapore penny stock Blumont involved in police...

Singapore penny stock Blumont involved in police probe

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/04/02/blumont-group-investigation-idUSL4N0MU25Y20140402

(Reuters) - Blumont Group Ltd, a Singapore-listed company at the centre of a penny-stock crash last year, said on Wednesday that one of its subsidiaries has been asked to assist with a police investigation in the city-state.

The company said that its subsidiary, G1 Investments, has been contacted by the Commercial Affairs Dept. (CAD), the police force's white-collar crime unit, and asked for all corporate electronic data from January 2011 to now related to its executive chairman, Neo Kim Hock, and executive director James Hong.

The company said the investigation is in relation to an offence under the Securities and Futures Act. Hong has also been asked to assist the CAD directly, it said.

Blumont, which mainly invests in mining assets, was one of three companies whose share prices crashed last October and wiped out around S$8 billion ($6.35 billion) in market value in just two days after huge run-ups in their share values. The scandal led to a series of proposed reforms to the city-state's stock trading rules.

"The business and operations of the company are not affected by the investigations and will continue as normal," Blumont said in a statement to Singapore's stock exchange.

Blumont's chairman, Alexander Molyneux, could not be reached for comment and the public relations agency that acts for the company had no comment on the developments.

($1 = 1.2591 Singapore dollars) (Reporting by Rachel Armstrong and Andrew Toh; Editing by Matt Driskill)