Trader with lavish tastes in hot water over $740m fraud claims

At 33, Ng Yu Zhi had all the trappings of a wildly successful trader: a card catalogue full of rich clients, a three-storey villa in a posh Singapore neighbourhood and a Pagani Huayra supercar reportedly worth more than $5 million.

According to local prosecutors, Mr Ng also had a dark secret: his lavish lifestyle, they say, was built on lies.

He was charged last month with four counts of fraud for allegedly raising at least S$1 billion ($740m) from investors for commodity trades that did not exist.

The police have called it one of the city-state’s largest-ever suspected investment fraud cases. It is also the latest in a series of scandals in the financial and commodities-trading hub, where assets under management have swelled to S$4 trillion – thanks largely to inflows from overseas.

Much about Mr Ng and his dealings is shrouded in mystery.

However, court proceedings, interviews with investors and charges filed by prosecutors indicate he was able to raise huge sums of money by touting average quarterly gains of 15 per cent – a track record that would have placed him in the same league as the world’s top-performing hedge fund managers.

While Singapore offers plenty of legitimate business opportunities, there will likely be other instances of suspect behaviour as money flows into the country and investors reach for returns in an era of historically low interest rates, according to Song Seng-wun, an economist at CIMB Private Banking.

“This will not be the last case and that is the sad reality,” he said.

Attempts to reach Mr Ng for comment were unsuccessful. His lawyer, Davinder Singh, executive chairman of Davinder Singh Chambers, did not reply to emailed questions.

It is unclear from charges and court proceedings whether Mr Ng has entered a plea. A citizen of Singapore, he has been released on S$1.5m bail. The court will hear further proceedings in coming weeks.

While little is known about Mr Ng’s early life, he had become an increasingly visible figure in Singapore’s philanthropic, supercar and corporate communities in recent years.

A Pagani Huayra supercar valued at between S$7m and S$8m was among S$100m worth of assets seized from Mr Ng by the nation’s Commercial Affairs Department, the Straits

Times reported.

His business interests spanned everything from commodities trading and technology start-ups to Japanese restaurants and a veterinary clinic, according to corporate filings.

The fraud allegations against Mr Ng centre on his dealings at Envy Asset Management and Envy Global Trading, companies he controlled and where he was a director.

Of the more than S$1bn that was invested in the companies, S$300m was transferred to Ng’s personal account while about S$200m remains unaccounted for, prosecutors said in court proceedings last month.

While investors received payments worth S$700m, they are owed another S$1bn based on the face value of outstanding contracts, prosecutors said.

Both Envy Asset and Envy Global are under investigation by Singapore police, according to a police statement, although only Mr Ng has been charged.

An external representative for Envy Global did not respond to emails seeking comment. Envy Asset is no longer active, the representative said in February.

Mr Ng’s purported investment strategies that are under the spotlight were linked to nickel, a key ingredient in many electric-car batteries. The metal has become a popular speculative bet in recent years amid soaring demand for Teslas and other electric vehicles.

In one transaction described in the charges, Mr Ng was involved in raising money from investors, claiming that he would use it to buy nickel from an Australian company called Poseidon Nickel. He never followed through with the purchase, prosecutors said.

Poseidon said it has had no engagement with Mr Ng or related entities.

Mr Ng was involved in deceiving investors into buying supposed forward contracts that were purportedly with French lender BNP Paribas, but those contracts did not exist, according to the charges. BNP had no account or trading history with Mr Ng or his entities.

The Singaporean trader was able to raise huge sums by touting quarterly gains of 15 per cent