Raymond Ng, spouse of anti-vaccine group founder, on trial over 6 cheating charges involving $25,000

SINGAPORE – Raymond Ng Kai Hoe, whose wife Iris Koh founded anti-vaccine group Healing the Divide, appeared in the State Court on July 6 for the start of his five-day trial on cheating charges.

Ng, 53, was initially charged in February 2025 on 12 counts of cheating involving nearly $61,000 through his company, Candle Consulting.

On July 6, the prosecution applied to proceed on six charges and have the remaining charges stood down.

Ng is now accused of cheating six individuals of around $25,000 in total by deceiving them into believing that they would be acquiring co-ownership of coffee vending machines.

Ng, who is representing himself, is on trial after denying all six cheating charges levied against him by the prosecution.

The business registry shows that he is the sole director of Candle Consulting. His wife is one of two company secretaries.

At the start of the trial, District Judge Lim Tse Haw rejected Ng’s request to sit at the Bar while defending himself, saying he was not a qualified personnel and asking him to remain in the dock.

Before the trial started, Ng said the prosecutors had been addressing the witnesses in the case as victims – which he claimed was pre-judgment.

Speaking to the court, he said: “I want you to know and prevent the prosecutor from addressing them as victims when possible. It will affect their testimony on the stand, and they will convince themselves they are victims.”

In response, the judge said that he trusted the prosecutors to address all witnesses by their names when the trial began.

Ms How Kai Xin, a legal process specialist at financial services platform Stripe, was called to the stand as the first witness.

How was brought in as Ng had used Stripe as a payments platform for Candle Consulting.

The prosecution tendered transaction records produced by Stripe showing payments made by the alleged victims to Candle Consulting.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Jordon Li spoke to How for around 20 minutes before Ng started his cross-examination.

He began by asking if How had a law degree, to which she said she did not. He then questioned her role at Stripe and her education level and her field of study.

He also asked if she could answer any questions about Stripe’s service contracts with customers like himself and respond to any technical questions he might have.

Ng spent a large part of the day posing technical questions to How, including how payments are made with credit cards, how funds are moved on Stripe from a buyer to a merchant, and the source of those funds.

At one point, the judge intervened, telling him that How had answered most of his questions in the morning and was not equipped to answer most of his technical questions.

How said the evidence she had provided on July 6 was to show the transactions – requested by the Singapore police for investigations – that were processed by Stripe on behalf of the end-customers of Candle Consulting.

Ng argued that the table showed only payments from Stripe to Candle Consulting, with authorisation from the end-customers. He said the table was not able to show any fund transfer between the end-customer and Candle Consulting.

How responded that Stripe is merely a payment facilitator and that the company facilitates a payment between the end-user and Candle Consulting.

Ng’s trial will continue on July 7, when the prosecution is expected to call on one of the alleged victims as its second witness.

For each count of cheating, an offender can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.

Ng’s wife, Koh, is involved in a separate trial over Covid-19 vaccines, including being part of a conspiracy to make false representations to the Health Promotion Board. Her case is fixed for a pre-trial conference on July 27.