Accused in $1.5b trading scam faces 6 more charges

Singaporean businessman Ng Yu Zhi, who is at the centre of an alleged US$1.1 billion (S$1.5 billion) nickel trading scam, was slapped with six more charges yesterday.

Ng, 34, was accused of transferring more than $68 million to several personal bank accounts he held with DBS Bank, UOB, OCBC Bank, Citibank, HSBC, Maybank and Standard Chartered Bank, between March last year and February this year.

He was also accused of using the alleged ill-gotten gains from his firms - Envy Global Trading and Envy Asset Management - to pay for supercars, properties, jewellery, insurance policies and artwork, which amounted to more than $100 million.

This takes the total number of charges against him to 75, including those for forgery and criminal breach of trust. Ng, who has yet to enter a plea, is out on a bail of $4 million. He was arrested in February and first charged in March.

Among his purchases was a multimillion-dollar Pagani Huayra hypercar previously owned by Ossia International chief executive Steven Goh.

Court documents showed that Ng had paid Mr Goh $7.1 million, as partial payment for the rare Italian hypercar, between April and August last year.

The hypercar was among the $100 million worth of assets seized by the Commercial Affairs Department this year.

Other cars Ng bought included a Porsche 911 GT3, Ferrari 488 Pista Spider, Toyota Lexus LS500, Aston Martin Rapide, Rolls Royce Phantom and Lamborghini Aventador SVJ.

Within a year, Ng had spent over $20 million on about 20 luxury cars, including a sought-after vehicle number plate - S11T.

He also paid more than $20 million for four properties in Emerald Hill, Bussorah Street, Jervois Road and Coldstream Avenue and over $15 million for high-end jewellery and luxury watches, some of which were from Bulgari, Piaget, Van Cleef & Arpels and Richard Mille.

Court documents also showed Ng paid almost $10 million for 44 pieces of artwork, several of which were works by local artists.

Ng, a former director of Envy Asset Management and Envy Global Trading, had allegedly raised more than $1.2 billion from investors for fake deals related to nickel trading, making this one of Singapore's largest fraudulent trading schemes.

Investors, who include prominent personalities here such as former Law Society president Thio Shen Yi, were promised varying returns, depending on the types of nickel trading schemes they joined.