Nickel scam accused’s buying spree extends to S$8 million on semi-detached house, S$2 million on art pieces: witnesses

[SINGAPORE] Ng Yu Zhi spent S$8 million on a semi-detached house and splurged S$2 million on a total of 41 works of art, allegedly using the ill-gotten gains from his purported nickel trading.

Ng, 37, accused of swindling nearly 1,000 victims of about S$1.5 billion over six years, paid S$8 million for a freehold, semi-detached house in the Kembangan area in 2020, based on the statement of prosecution witness Johnson Koh, a director of TLA-CS that sold the property to Ng.

TLA-CS granted Ng the option to purchase in July 2020, with the sale of the property to a Geraldine Lim completed in November that year. But TLA-CS’ Koh did not say in the statement tendered to court on Thursday (Apr 17) the relationship between Lim and the accused. 

The witness, however, said that he understood from the option to purchase that Ng intended to buy the property on trust for his children. Eventually, TLA-CS received a total of S$8 million from Ng, inclusive of the S$85,600 commission for the seller’s property agent and the nearly S$6,000 in conveyance costs.

In addition, Ng bought 20 works of art from Ota and 21 such pieces from Ode to Art in December 2020, paying nearly S$2 million in total, based on the statement of Chong Chin Fong, who owns the two companies.

The prosecution contends that the funds Ng used to pay for the property and the works of art were from the criminal benefits that he had obtained from fraudulent nickel trading through his company Envy Global Trading.

A piece Ng had wanted to buy from Ode to Art was subsequently replaced by another, and resulted in S$9,412 being kept by the art dealer as credit for future purchases. The police’s Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) seized this sum in August 2021.

Also, the CAD seized the amount for a work of art refunded by Ota in August 2021 as Ng had requested to delay the delivery of this purchase.

Subsequently, two pieces were taken away in April 2023 by the liquidators of Envy group of companies, which were ordered to be wound up in August 2021.

The High Court has been hearing evidence in this past week on Ng’s purchases, including multiple luxury cars for his girlfriends and wife, and a 20-carat diamond ring, as the prosecution sought to prove the accused’s money-laundering charges.