SINGAPORE: A businessman at the centre of an alleged billion-dollar nickel investment fraud case was slapped with a fresh charge of attempted money-laundering on Wednesday (Jan 31).
Ng Yu Zhi, a 36-year-old Singaporean who was formerly managing director at Envy Global Trading, is accused of trying to sell a shophouse at 13 Bussorah Street to a Gan Wee Pin for S$500,000 (US$372,800) in October 2023.
This was at a fraction of the S$5 million price he had purchased it for in the first place.
The property in the new charge is already part of his existing set of charges, numbering over a hundred.
Ng was already accused of laundering money by buying the shophouse in the first place in 2020 or 2021 with a sum of more than S$5 million that came from alleged criminal proceeds.
Those criminal proceeds are from the alleged fraudulent business by Envy Global Trading, according to previous charge sheets.
Ng was remanded in February 2023 after being unable to raise the increased bail of S$6 million sought by the prosecution.
This was after his bankruptcy proceedings revealed he had further undisclosed assets.
At the time, his then-lawyer had argued for a lower bail amount, saying Ng would not “run away” and “do that to his own father”, who raised the previous bail of S$4 million for his son.
However, Ng eventually managed to raise the increased amount and was out on bail when the fresh charge allegedly occurred.
He is currently detained at A Division at Police Cantonment Complex after attending an interview with the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) on Monday.
On Wednesday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Gordon Oh sought seven days’ remand for Ng, saying there are further suspected incidents of money-laundering involving “many parties”.
He said there were also telecommunication devices found in Ng’s possession which require further review.
He sought no bail for Ng, saying there were risks of tipping off other suspected involved parties and potential destruction of evidence if he were released.
“There are also risks that computer evidence found in telco devices may be destroyed or compromised and other investigative leads from these devices or these persons may also be compromised,” said Mr Oh.
Defence lawyer Johannes Hadi from Eugene Thuraisingam’s law firm said that his client had attended the CAD interview on Monday morning.
“Investigations into these alleged offences have been ongoing since Monday. I just want to put this on record, so that by the time we get back next week, we will have a sense of how long the investigations had been going on and we can evaluate the position again then,” he said.
The lawyer added that this case has been ongoing for quite long, with intensive investigations.
The prosecution said the new charge involves property which is the subject matter of one of the charges that has been transmitted to the High Court.
Ng was first charged in March 2021 with cheating and fraudulent trading. His latest charge is his 107th.
He allegedly raised money from investors to purchase nickel, promising varying returns when the companies involved did not purchase any nickel.
The scheme allegedly cheated investors of about US$1.1 billion, and has already landed other men in jail for their attempts to help Ng flee Singapore.
The judge ordered Ng to be remanded for investigations and adjourned the case to next week.