‘Suspicious transactions’ behind a Singapore investment platform

Given the stunning revelations that were uncovered, this was a story that simply couldn’t wait. [Read from your browser]( Editor's Letter Dear {NAME} Happy new year! I was aiming to have a relaxing holiday weekend, but life can throw curveballs sometimes. For hundreds of investors in lending platform CoAssets, the news they received was devastating - they stand to lose all the money they’ve sunk into the company. Some put in their life savings while others sold their houses to invest. ([Read the story here.]( Police reports have been filed. Appeals to the Singapore Prime Minister have been made. Tech in Asia got wind of the story about two days before Christmas. Then I went to work speaking to sources and collecting evidence. I spent the weekend writing and rewriting the story, and then attended a three-hour-long powwow among investors of CoAssets on December 28. Finally, I woke up at 4.30 am the next day to make some final edits, just in time for publication four hours later. Given the stunning revelations that were uncovered, this was a story that simply couldn’t wait. This development got me thinking: Can media companies like Tech in Asia and the startup community as a whole do more to prevent such heartbreaking fiascos in the first place? It’s not the first time we’ve covered such a tragedy - the Honestbee debacle is another good example. What if journalists had been more critical of such companies even when things looked peachy on the surface? Would that have prevented a bad situation from getting worse? It’s easier said than done. As journalists, we can only publish something if there are adequate sources and credible evidence, and people are hesitant to speak up against a company when things appear to be going well. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof, especially if we’re talking about potentially fraudulent behavior. Those who make their voices heard can meet a lot of resistance too, and it can feel like a lonely road. Even Lawrence Lim, the former chief operating officer of CoAssets, experienced this when he warned investors about the firm early on. “Not many people believed in me,” he recalls. That said, asking tough questions - even of companies that seem exceptional - is something that we want to continue doing and get better at. That’s our commitment for 2021. In the meantime, I’d liken business journalists to pathologists. The difference is that we don’t examine and scrutinize bodies and corpses, but troubled or dying companies instead. For many CoAssets investors, it may be too late to recoup their money. But I take some comfort in the hope that our stories will help prevent future mistakes from being made. Perhaps all this is just an inevitable result of a popped bubble. If so, the good news is that surviving startups have emerged stronger as a result. As for me, I’ll be taking a couple days off this week, and then it’s full steam ahead. Our journalism won’t be possible without our supporters. [Do subscribe to keep us going.]( Regards, Terence Editor-in-Chief P.S. Don't miss out on the biggest tech news and analysis. Add newsletter@techinasia.com to your address book, contacts, or safe sender list. Or simply move us into your inbox. Was this forwarded to you? You can read this every day when you sign up [here](. Don't want to receive these emails anymore? [Unsubscribe](. --------------------------------------------------------------- Tech in Asia’s newsletters are handcrafted daily with love - and sometimes powered by good kopi. Copyright © 2021 Tech in Asia, All rights reserved. 51 Bras Basah Rd, #05-5061, Singapore 189554