27-11-2024 (SINGAPORE) A massive fraud trial began today as prosecutors unveiled details of what they describe as an elaborate $1.46 billion nickel trading scheme, allegedly orchestrated by businessman Ng Yu Zhi, who faces 108 criminal charges.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Gordon Oh told the High Court that Ng, 37, had convinced 947 investors to pour money into his companies, Envy Asset Management and Envy Global Trading, through a sophisticated web of deception involving non-existent nickel trades.
The court heard that Ng allegedly fabricated a business model claiming his firms could purchase nickel at discounted rates from Australian mines and sell it at substantial profits. “The prosecution will show that this pretty picture of a profitable physical nickel trading business was but a pure fiction,” DPP Oh stated.
Prosecutors revealed that more than $481 million of investors’ funds were allegedly channelled directly into Ng’s personal accounts, financing an extravagant lifestyle that included luxury properties worth $20 million and an impressive collection of supercars, including a Pagani Huayra Coupe and Rolls-Royce Phantom.
The prosecution’s case centres on 42 primary charges, encompassing cheating, forgery, criminal breach of trust, money laundering, and fraudulent trading. According to DPP Oh, Ng operated the scheme through Envy Asset Management from February 2016 to March 2020, before continuing through Envy Global Trading until March 2021.
In damning evidence presented to the court, prosecutors alleged that Ng forged crucial documents, including distribution agreements with Poseidon Nickel Limited and forward contracts with BNP Paribas, to legitimise his operations.
The first witness, Shim Wai Han, former CEO of Envysion Wealth Management, testified about her initial meeting with Ng in 2018. She described how Ng claimed to have discovered trading opportunities while working as an auditor at KPMG, allegedly leveraging connections with mining giant BHP Billiton.
Shim, whose company allegedly lost $47.3 million to the scheme, recounted Ng’s elaborate story about purchasing discounted nickel from Poseidon following a cancelled BHP agreement. She testified that concerns arose when Envy Asset Management was placed on the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s investor alert list in March 2020.
The case has sent shockwaves through Singapore’s financial sector, particularly affecting Envysion Wealth Management, whose former directors face separate charges under the Securities and Futures Act for failing to implement proper risk management frameworks.
The trial continues, with prosecutors preparing to present extensive evidence of what they claim was essentially a sophisticated Ponzi scheme, where earlier investors were paid with funds from new investors, while no actual nickel trading ever took place.
