In Singapore, alleged nickel fraud ensnares members of its growing wealthy class

Top lawyers and investors signed up for businessman Ng Yu Zhi’s scheme that allegedly raised S$1 billion for commodity trades that didn’t exist

Observers say with a growing moneyed class in the city state, it’s a lesson to investors to do extensive due diligence

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The size of Singapore’s high-net-worth bracket is growing. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 5:46pm, 29 Jun 2021Updated: 7:33pm, 29 Jun 2021

Three months ago, Ng Yu Zhi’s name was largely unknown to regular Singaporeans.

Then the 34-year-old businessman was accused of fraud amounting to S$1 billion (US$744.5 million), in which he allegedly swindled the money selling nickel deals that never took place.

Prosecutors alleged the money probably fuelled a lavish lifestyle. Ng lived in a three-story home with a fancy address and owned the city state’s only Pagani Huayra supercar costing more than S$7 million. Even Ng’s bail is an outsized S$1.5 million.

Curiosity was again stoked on Monday when 13 new charge sheets revealed that the people he allegedly cheated were not clueless investors.

They included top lawyers in Singapore whose names regularly appear in local papers, as well as long-time investor Finian Tan, who is known for having spotted the potential in search giant Baidu back in 2000 when it was just a small Chinese start-up. Tan now runs tech start-up investor Vickers Venture Partners.

Ng’s dealings occurred at Envy Asset Management and Envy Global Trading, companies he controlled and where he was a director.

If you’re not conducting your own due diligence and want to rely on the famous name as an investor, you’ve to at least find out who did the due diligence

Kerry Goh, Kamet Capital

Of the more than S$1 billion that was invested in the firms, S$300 million was transferred to Ng’s personal account while an estimated S$200 million remains unaccounted for. Ng touted average quarterly gains of 15 per cent for his nickel trades.