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SINGAPORE: A venture capitalist on Thursday (Apr 3) testified how he came to invest in a scheme perpetuated by Ng Yu Zhi, the man said to be at the centre of an alleged billion-dollar nickel investment fraud.
Dr Finian Tan, the founder and chairman of Vickers Venture Partners - a global venture capital firm - said that he first met Ng in August 2020.
Ng impressed the venture capitalist with his knowledge, intellect and his seeming capability as a nickel trader, with Dr Tan even remarking in court at one point that he was "amazed a young person could amass so much net worth".
Ng, 37, stands accused of duping 947 investors of almost S$1.5 billion (US$1.12 billion), of which more than S$481 million was allegedly channelled to his personal bank accounts and used to finance a lavish lifestyle.
According to the prosecution, Ng ran an elaborate scheme offering investors profits from the purported sale of physical nickel from 2016 to 2021.
Through his companies Envy Global Trading (EGT) and Envy Asset Management, Ng purportedly deceived investors that he was buying nickel at a discount and selling it for sizeable profit.
In fact, there was no underlying physical nickel trading activity, and investors were instead paid with money invested by other investors, the prosecution has said.
Ng is currently contesting 42 charges comprising 15 counts of forgery, 14 counts of handling benefits from criminal conduct, 10 counts of cheating, two counts of fraudulent trading and one count of criminal breach of trust.
The remaining 66 charges have been stood down for the time being.
The trial, which began in November last year, has had professionals who counted themselves among Ng's alleged victims testifying in court, including private banker Veronica Shim. Shim, the first witness to testify, is the former CEO of Envysion Wealth Management.
She was charged in March last year with conniving in Envysion's failure to put in place an appropriate risk management framework for the fund, and failure to mitigate conflicts of interest arising from management of assets under the fund.
Shim is also accused of breaching the Official Secrets Act by forwarding an email thread between the Monetary Authority of Singapore and Envysion to Ng.
Other alleged victims named in charges include Temasek International general counsel Pek Siok Lan and former Law Society president Thio Shen Yi.
According to Ng's charge involving Dr Tan, Ng allegedly deceived Dr Tan into delivering around US$19.2 million to EGT.
DR TAN IMPRESSED BY NG
Dr Tan testified that he met Ng in August 2020, after a good friend told him about a person who was keen to invest in Vickers, and asked if he would like to meet the person, who was Ng.
As Vickers was fundraising at the time, Dr Tan agreed and organised a meeting on his boat in Sentosa.
This was when Dr Tan met Ng and Shim for the first time.
Asked by Deputy Public Prosecutor Gordon Oh what he learnt about Ng's nickel trading business at this meeting, Dr Tan replied nothing much, as the meeting had been focused on Vickers.
"I just asked him what he did. He said he is a nickel trader and a very successful one and before he came, (Shim) also told me that this guy you are about to meet is a very very successful nickel trader," Dr Tan said.
Ng then appeared "very excited" about Vickers and subsequently agreed to put US$5 million in a fund.
The prosecution then produced screenshots of WhatsApp messages exchanged between Ng and Dr Tan following the meeting, where Dr Tan told Ng he was "proud" to have "such successful young people" in Singapore.
Asked by Mr Oh what he meant, Dr Tan said he was "amazed that such a young person could amass so much net worth".
"Just the fact that he was a self-made man, apparently, and he was so young, and he appeared very knowledgeable and smart," Dr Tan said.
"He understood clearly what I was doing, asked very good questions, and he didn't inherit his wealth so I was ... impressed."
The two subsequently met over meals and Ng also expressed interest in investing US$24 million in Vickers Capital Group subject to three conditions.
One of these was to have Dr Tan come on board as an advisor for Envysion, Dr Tan agreed to the conditions.
He maintained that he had not yet learnt more about Ng's nickel trading business at this point.
HOW DR TAN GOT INTO THE BUSINESS
Dr Tan said he first learnt about Ng's nickel investment scheme after he agreed to meet the team at Envysion as its advisor.
During this session, which was sometime in September 2020, Shim told him more about Envysion's "core business" in nickel. Dr Tan said this surprised him, as nickel trading was volatile.
He later found out more about the scheme and was intrigued by how Ng was seemingly able to make consistent money from it.
When he asked Ng for more details during a dinner on Sep 17, 2020, Ng allegedly told him that he bought nickel from a miner in Australia when prices were low, and claimed to have secured a term contract before prices skyrocketed.
Dr Tan subsequently conducted his own checks and found that the prices of nickel in the years past were consistent with what Ng had told him.
The next morning, Dr Tan sent a WhatsApp message to Ng, asking if he could invest in the nickel business.
Dr Tan told the court that he had "heard enough" to be excited about the scheme, and wanted to ask if he could go through Ng himself to bypass any fees he would have had to pay if he invested through Envysion.
However, he felt that this would be unfair to Shim, who had first introduced the scheme to him.
He then indicated to Shim that he had an "appetite" of 15 million to invest. The currency of this amount has not yet been revealed in court proceedings.
The trial continues on Friday with Dr Tan resuming the stand.
