The lawyers for suspended China Aviation Oil (CAO) chief executive Chen Jiulin made the request during a pre-trial conference at the Subordinate Courts.

"We want some clarifications of charges made against Chen," defence counsel Michael Hwang told reporters after a closed door meeting with the judge and prosecutors ahead of a formal trial.

Hwang also said he would press for the release of documents pertinent to the case's defence, after earlier attempts to do so at the first pre-trial conference last month were unsuccessful.

He said they wanted a copy of the full report by audit house PricewaterhouseCoopers which showed a series of glaring failures in corporate governance that allowed CAO managers to hide losses from the board, audit committee and shareholders.

"We've asked various parties for the report, and we're still asking for the report," said Desmond Ong, another of Chen's defence counsels.

Chen, 43, was arrested and charged in June along with four other CAO officials in connection with irregularities leading to the company's near collapse under a mountain of debt last year.

He was freed after posting a bail of S$2 million.

Chen was charged with 15 counts of cheating and forgery while running the Singapore Exchange-listed jet fuel trader, which lost some US$550 million from speculation at the height of energy price volatility in late 2004.

Among other charges, he was also accused of conspiring with CAO's Singaporean finance head Peter Lim to cheat Deutsche Bank of more than $111 million, and of forging the signature of CAO chairman Jia Changbin.

Chen also allegedly deliberately omitted from CAO's financial statements the fact the firm had racked up losses in derivatives trading, and hid the truth from the board of directors.

Judge Aedit Abdullah set another pre-trial conference on July 19, where all parties are expected to agree on a trial date.

CAO's debacle was Singapore's biggest business scandal since the collapse of British merchant bank Barings in 1995 after young trader Nick Leeson tried to hide over US$1 billion in losses from financial derivatives trading.

But unlike Barings, CAO received a lifeline after creditors voted in favour of a restructuring plan.


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