Singapore businessman Ng Yu Zhi faces trial over US$1.1 billion nickel scam

The ex-accountant, who spent millions on funding an extravagant lifestyle, is accused of raising money for trades that did not exist

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The nickel scam is one of Singapore’s largest-ever investment frauds. Photo: Reuters

Published: 3:23pm, 26 Nov 2024

An ex-accountant accused of running a billion-dollar nickel scam that rocked Singapore’s business community is on trial on Tuesday on more than 100 charges related to fraud and money laundering.

Prosecutors allege that Ng Yu Zhi, 37, raised money for trades that did not exist. Hundreds of clients, many of them high-profile figures in the city state, put their money into a US$1.1 billion scheme tied to Ng’s Envy Group, which offered investments in nickel trading and touted impressive average quarterly gains of 15 per cent.

Ng, meanwhile, spent millions on funding an extravagant lifestyle, including a three-storey villa in a high-end neighbourhood and a multimillion-dollar Pagani sports car.

Singapore police have referred to the scam, carried out between 2020 and 2021, as one of the country’s largest-ever investment frauds. It’s also the latest in a series of scandals in the financial and commodities-trading hub, which is now eager to restore a reputation for good governance.

Earlier this month, former oil tycoon Lim Oon Kuin, 82, was handed a 17-and-half year jail sentence for cheating HSBC Holdings Plc and instigating forgery. In October, S Iswaran became the first ex-cabinet minister to be jailed in almost half a century, after pleading guilty in charges including obstruction of justice.

The law firms representing Ng are Legal Eagles, Nicholas & Tan Partnership LLP, Nine Yards Chambers LLC, R. Ramason & Almenoar. The presiding judge will be Christopher Tan.