Liquidators seeking to recover $855m from alleged nickel trading scammer Ng and three others

The civil trial of a case brought by liquidators against Ng Yu Zhi, the alleged nickel-trading fraudster at the centre of a $1.5 billion nickel trading scam, and three others began on July 30 in the High Court.

The liquidators of Ng’s three companies are seeking a court order to recover about $855 million from Ng, former directors Lee Si Ye and Ju Xiao, and former employee Cheong Ming Feng, for their complicity in what is allegedly the biggest Ponzi scheme in Singapore’s history.

Ng and the trio were sued in November 2021 by the liquidators of Envy Global Trading (EGT), Envy Asset Management (EAM) and Envy Management Holdings in a bid to recover $416.5 million and US$17.7 million (S$23.8 million) of investors’ monies allegedly transferred to Ng’s own bank accounts under false pretences.

In December 2022, Ng, the former managing director of EGT and EAM, was declared a bankrupt upon application by liquidators to recover these sums from his personal assets.

Ng, who is in remand, did not appear in court for the trial.

Court documents state that Ng’s three companies received about $1.09 billion, US$277.2 million and €980,000 (S$1.4 million) in investor funds, supposedly for nickel trading.

Of those sums, $593 million, US$192.2 million and €880,000 remain outstanding to investors, lawyers David Chan and Lin Ruizi of Shook Lin & Bok said in opening statements filed on behalf of the liquidators.

In addition, the liquidators are seeking to recover $26.2 million in commissions, profit sharing, dividends and directors’ fees paid to Ms Lee, US$1.84 million and $471,569 from Mr Ju and $1.92 million from Mr Cheong.

According to the liquidators, the defendants claimed that they “believed Ng’s explanations for why fraudulent acts needed to be done, and believed the purported nickel trading was a genuine business”.

But the defendants’ “obliviousness in the face of countless red flags must mean that they comprehensively breached all duties and responsibilities which they owed to the Envy companies”, they argued.

Ms Lee was alleged to have helped Ng cover up details of the fraudulent transfers of $416.5 million and US$17.7 million.

Her case appears to be that she thought these were legitimate transfers to a British Virgin Islands company called Envy Asset Management Trading for the purported nickel trading, the liquidators said.

Ms Lee, who was not represented by a lawyer, told the court she did not think the scheme was a fraud.

“When this whole thing blew up, I was in late stage of pregnancy. I supported investors during confinement and caring for my newborn,” she said.

“Whatever I did for the company, I did it with my best knowledge and that everything was real.”

The defendants were also accused of forging documents, including contracts and shipping documents, to “create the pretence that the Envy companies were engaged in physical nickel trading through the purchase of nickel from Poseidon Nickel”.

But the investors’ funds were never used to buy nickel from Poseidon Nickel.

In order to keep up the facade, Mr Ju, a former head of trading for EGT, in August 2020 allegedly helped Ng procure a batch of nickel that had been sitting in a local warehouse for a long time, liquidators said.

They added that this was done to mislead investors into thinking it was a freshly purchased shipment from Poseidon Nickel, the liquidators said.

Mr Ju, who was also not represented by a lawyer, told the court that he “forged documents on Ng’s instructions because he thought the documents were to conceal trading secrets”.

Mr Cheong, a former client support associate, “admitted to assisting Ng in conveying instructions” to a third party for forgery of shipping documents and other documents, the liquidators said.

“He has admitted to deleting his WhatsApp chat history with Ng after CAD’s (Commercial Affairs Department) investigations began... The only explanation is that he wanted to conceal his own role in the Ponzi scheme,” they said.

Mr Cheong’s lawyer, Mr Koh Kok Kwang of CTLC Law, said his client was an administrative executive and not a manager.

“He never worked in an office job, and didn’t have the character to question what Ng asked him to do,” Mr Koh said.

On top of the lawsuit, Ng is facing 106 criminal charges over his alleged involvement in the $1.5 billion nickel trading scam. The charges include cheating, criminal breach of trust, forgery, fraudulent trading and money laundering.

Another trial against six other former employees who are being sued by the liquidators for more than $40 million in commissions, profit sharing and investment returns is expected to start in September.

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