[SINGAPORE] Alleged nickel fraudster Ng Yu Zhi had “five families” – his wife, ex-wife and three girlfriends – one of his former employees told the High Court on Wednesday (Apr 16).
This prosecution witness, Shen Xuhuai, also testified that Ng had asked her to help him buy a 20.25-carat yellow diamond ring for US$965,000. It was not mentioned in court whether the gem was gifted.
The information on the 37-year-old accused’s private life emerged when Shen, the former general manager of Envy Asset Management, was giving evidence in the trial in which Ng is contesting 42 charges of fraudulent trading, cheating, forgery, criminal breach of trust and money laundering.
Asked what she meant by that, she replied: “At that point of time, he had one wife and three girlfriends, and one ex-wife.”
BT in your inbox
Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.
She could not recall the name of Ng’s former spouse, but was able to name the other four women in Ng’s life – his current wife Coco Cai Meizhen, and his three girlfriends Li Qiong, Qian Yijun and Tay Li Ting. Ng had introduced all of them to Shen before.
Except for Li, all the other women had been recipients of luxury cars Ng bought, going by a car dealer’s earlier testimony.
20.25 carat yellow diamond ring
Shen also told the court about the US$965,000 yellow diamond ring that she helped Ng to buy from House of Gems in July 2020. She did this because Ng did not want their mutual friend Angela Ng to know he was the buyer.
For this, Ng is facing a charge of using ill-gotten gains from his fraudulent nickel trading to purchase the jewellery.
Nicholas Narayanan, Ng’s counsel, pointed out that the accused had voluntarily surrendered the ring to the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD), which Shen said she did not know about.
She also testified that she prepared tables showing estimated profits and percentage returns, and that Ng provided figures, such as those for the selling price of the metal and hedging costs. She added that Ng made adjustments to these inputs to arrive at the percentage return he wanted.
When Narayanan asked Shen whether she knew that Ng had obtained such information from former Envy director David Ju Xiao, Shen replied that she did not know.
Three video clips were played in court, showing a team of Envy staff doing a stock count of “nickel” in a warehouse while Ng was heard talking in the background about the sacks of purported nickel stocks.
He was heard saying that the sacks were sealed, so they were unable to see the nickel, but that the contents would have been verified before they were cleared for storage in a warehouse in Jurong Port. He said this should suffice for audit purposes.
Ng is accused of masterminding a nickel-trading scam that attracted nearly S$1.5 billion from 947 investors from 2016 to 2021. He allegedly claimed that his company Envy Asset Management was buying nickel at a discount and selling the metal for a profit.
When the company was placed on the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s alert list, Ng is said to have used another company, Envy Global Trading, to perpetrate his scheme. He changed his ruse, saying that investors were providing financing for nickel purchases before the buyers paid up.
The prosecution contends that no nickel was bought or sold – earlier investors were paid with money put in by other investors in the Ponzi scheme.
Shen became emotional on the stand when she was asked about the impact of this case on her. She said it caused her financial losses and mental stress because she, her family and friends had invested in the purported nickel trading.
She said that not only has her reputation in her circle of family and friends taken a hit, she has also become distrustful. She added that she had not expected Envy’s business to be illegitimate.
“When do I fact-check every single thing my boss asks me to do? If you now ask me to work, naturally I am going to question. (The case came to light in) 2021, now it’s 2025 – almost four years. But the civil lawsuit, coming here as a witness, talking about the case over and over… I am trying to move on with my life. If the civil lawsuit (is) not in my favour, I might end up bankrupt,” she said.
The Envy group’s liquidators have sued her and seven other former employees to recover some funds that were paid to them.
Shen said she was a junior college classmate of former Envy director Rhiya Lee, who invited her to join Envy, the company founded by Lee and Ng after they both quit working at KPMG.
“Looking back, I was not thinking whether (the nickel trading) was legitimate, a scam or not. Rhiya, I have known her more than 10 years, I know what kind of person she is, I don’t think she scammed… It would be in my wildest dreams that two ex-auditors would come up with a scam to scam people. Minimally, I think they knew what they (were) doing.”
Porsche Boxster
Apart from Shen, another of Ng’s former employees, Jordan Chua – the former managing director of Envy Motors – also took the stand.
Initially, Ng invested S$500,000 in Envy Motors when he incorporated the used-cars trading company and gifted half the shares to Chua for building the business up. Envy Motors’ capital was subsequently raised to S$1 million.
Chua said Ng paid Envy Motors S$195,000 for a used Porsche Boxster, which Ng gifted to his girlfriend Zhao Wenjia in January 2020. As Zhao had wanted the two-door convertible quickly, ownership of the vehicle was transferred to her before Ng paid for it.
But the car was taken back two months later by Envy Motors, after Zhao had an accident. Chua, under instruction of the Commercial Affairs Department, sold the Porsche subsequently.
Ng’s defence counsel will cross-examine Chua on Thursday.
