Venture capitalist Finian Tan of US$33.3m duped in alleged nickel scam

[SINGAPORE] Well-known venture capitalist Finian Tan told the High Court on Tuesday (Apr 8) that he was red-faced by the loss to alleged fraudster Ng Yu Zhi.

“I am embarrassed by this loss. If you ever lose in this way, it’s not something you would be proud of or want to repeat,” said Dr Tan on the stand for the third day in Ng’s trial.

The loss to Ng’s alleged scam from the founder and chairman of Vickers Venture Partners, his associates, his company as well as the funds his group manages amounted to S$33.3 million.

Ng is accused of masterminding a nickel-trading scam that attracted about S$1.5 billion from 947 investors including Dr Tan from 2016 to 2021.

The 37-year-old allegedly did so by claiming that his company Envy Global Trading (EGT) was buying nickel at a discount and selling the metal for a profit. But the prosecution contends that no nickel was actually bought or sold – earlier investors were paid with money put in by other investors.

Ng is accused of duping Dr Tan by getting him to deliver US$19.2 million between October 2020 and January 2021 to EGT.

The bulk of the sum came from Dr Tan – US$14 million was from holding company Vickers Financial Group, of which he is the majority shareholder, and another US$1.5 million was his personal money.

Ng is also accused of cheating a company named FinComm, which used money from two of Vickers’ funds to invest in the nickel scheme. FinComm delivered US$14.1 million to EGT between December 2020 and January 2021.

When news broke that the Commercial Affairs Department was looking into Ng’s nickel trading business in early 2021 and that Dr Tan was one of the alleged victims, investors in Vickers funds were very concerned, Dr Tan testified on Tuesday.

“We had a rough 2021. Investors were very concerned… whether we did proper due diligence, do we have the mandate to invest… We had to hire external consultants to check on our processes. It was a very trying year.”

He said the incident affected the reputation of Vickers, but fortunately no fundraising took place at that time.

While the funds that invested about US$14.1 million in Ng’s purported nickel business had to write down this amount, the Vickers funds collectively had a record year. But the performance would have been even better had Vickers not written off this purported investment.

Dr Tan has completed his testimony. His subordinate is the next prosecution witness slated to take the stand on Tuesday afternoon.