However, only 13 witnesses will be cross-examined, with four undergoing detailed questioning on the first day of the hearing today.

Soh, who appeared in court wearing a purple prison jumpsuit, is alleged to have triggered the collapse of the Singapore penny stocks in 2013.

He has been on remand since the end of 2016 for commercial crime and has been denied bail.

Assistant registrar James Elisha Lee Han Leong will decide if Soh’s case will proceed to trial. If the case proceeds, the businessman is expected to go to trial by year-end.

He faces a total of 188 charges, including seven new charges for witness tampering in February last year.

The rest of the charges concern his alleged violation of the Securities and Futures Act.

If convicted, Soh is liable to be sentenced to 10 years’ jail for cheating. He also faces seven years’ imprisonment for each of the share manipulation charges.

Soh’s charges are in relation to the collapse of the share prices of Asiasons Capital Ltd, Blumont Group Ltd and LionGold Corp in October 2013, which then spirally affected most penny stocks in Singapore.

He is represented by N Sreenivasan, S Balamurugan and Jason Lim of Straits Law Practice while the public prosecutors are Peter Koy and Teo Guan Siew.