Ng Yu Zhi, former director of Envy Global Trading, lived lavishly; Prosecutor said during hearing of S$1.5 billion nickel investment scam case

SINGAPORE: Alleged fraudster Ng Yu Zhi was “living lavishly” on the proceeds of crime from his planned S$1.5 billion (US$1.1 billion) nickel investment scheme, prosecutors told a High Court judge on Wednesday (Nov 27).

On the second day of the Singaporean trial, Deputy Public Prosecutor Gordon Oh said Ng, 37, carried out the elaborate scheme that allowed investors to profit from the sale of so-called physical nickel from 2016 to 2021.

The prosecution alleges that Ng, through his companies Envy Global Trading and Envy Asset Management, deceived investors by buying nickel at a discount and selling it at a large profit.

This plan was Ng’s “brainchild” and “complete fiction”. Mr. Oh said he forged documents and made false statements, either himself or through Envy companies’ sales representatives, to tell a credible story.

The prosecutor said there was no physical nickel trading activity that would actually yield any returns, and instead investors were paid with money invested by other investors.

According to the prosecutor, Ng reaped enormous personal benefit from the scheme by withdrawing at least S$201.2 million from Envy Global Trading into his personal bank accounts.

He is also alleged to have laundered S$94.2 million in proceeds of crime by purchasing luxury vehicles, jewelery and works of art.

This accounted for some of the approximately S$305 million he was also accused of laundering through other means, including transferring the proceeds to other bank accounts and other persons and placing them outside jurisdiction.

Ng’s indulgences include a Pagani Huayra Coupe sports car worth S$1.8 million, paintings by famous Singaporean artists such as Cheong Soo Pieng and Chinese artists such as Gao Bussorah Street.

The prosecution was laying out its case against Ng in its opening statement. Lawyers from both sides clashed on the first day of the hearing and the prosecution accuses the defense of wasting time.

Ng is appealing against 42 charges of forgery, money laundering, cheating, fraudulent trading and breach of trust. A further 66 charges were withdrawn during the trial.

The prosecution will take the testimony of 58 witnesses to present its case in the planned hearing that will last more than 50 days.

These include a representative from Poseidon Nickel Limited, who will testify that it has no agreements to supply nickel to Ng’s companies, and a representative from BNP Paribas, who will testify that the bank does not have forward contracts to buy nickel from Ng’s companies.

The prosecution’s first witness to take the stand was Shim Wai Han, also known as Veronica Shim, one of Ng’s investors and the former CEO of Envysion Wealth Management.

According to Ng’s indictments, he allegedly deceived Shim of S$955,115, which he deposited with Envy Global Trading between November 2020 and January 2021.

Shim was accused in March of turning a blind eye to Envysion’s failure to establish an appropriate risk management framework for the fund and its failure to mitigate conflicts of interest arising from the management of assets under the fund.

The former private banker is also accused of violating the Official Secrets Act by forwarding an email correspondence between the Monetary Authority of Singapore and Envysion to Ng.

On Wednesday, Shim explained how he met Ng and the nickel investment plan and how the investment plan works.

Shim told the court he is a certified financial planner, trust and estate professional and worked as a private banker for nearly 20 years before registering Envysion in 2019.

He said he learned about the nickel investment plan from a friend in 2018 and wanted to meet with someone at Envy Asset Management to find out how it worked.

When he came across a nickel trading opportunity in 2016, he was introduced to Ng, who claimed to be an auditor at KPMG.

The price of nickel fell during that period, according to Ng, and nickel mining company Poseidon was stuck with a large stockpile of the metal after a buyer canceled the purchase agreement, Shim said.

Ng claimed that he bought the stock for himself at a good discount and sold it at a very profit.

However, he told Shim that the price of nickel had since stabilized, and Poseidon asked him to commit to purchasing the nickel monthly to continue benefiting from the discounted price.

Ng needed to improve his cash flow, as each nickel delivery took two to three months. That’s why he offered opportunities to other investors, Shim recalled.

He said Ng would let him know each month whether the nickel had been sold and show him a “profit sheet” of the difference between the sale and purchase price of the commodity.

Shim said he would later decide whether Ng would participate in this investment tranche with his companies, adding: “They never hesitated to pay us.”

The trial will continue on Wednesday afternoon.