Ng Yu Zhi, the man accused of masterminding Singapore's largest alleged Ponzi scheme, drew in nearly 1,000 investors and about S$1.5 billion through his companies Envy Global Trading and Envy Asset Management on the promise of lucrative nickel trading returns. The nickel, investigators alleged, never existed.
Ng, a former accountant who cultivated an image as a philanthropist and financial wunderkind, promised investors three-month profits averaging 15 per cent. He claimed to buy nickel metal at a discount from a company called Poseidon Nickel and resell it at a profit to BNP Paribas Commodity Futures or Raffemet. Instead, prosecutors said, money from new investors was used to pay earlier ones in a classic Ponzi structure that ran from 2016 until his arrest in February 2021.
The Commercial Affairs Department began probing his companies in November 2020. Ng was arrested on 16 February 2021 and charged on 22 March 2021 with cheating and fraudulent trading; he posted S$1.5 million bail, later raised to S$4 million. About S$1.46 billion flowed into his companies from 947 investors, with between S$300 million and S$474 million allegedly channelled into his personal bank accounts, funding a lavish lifestyle of artwork, property, cars and jewellery.
The victim list reads like a who's who of Singapore's elite: Temasek International general counsel Pek Siok Lan was allegedly cheated of S$5.5 million, former Law Society president Thio Shen Yi of more than S$500,000, Chuan Hup Holdings chief Terence Peh Siong Woon of S$3 million, and Vickers Venture Partners founder Finian Tan of US$19.2 million. During the trial, a witness testified that two investors had died directly or indirectly because of pressure from the case. Ng was declared bankrupt in 2022; his restaurants, including Cicada at Clarke Quay, closed or were sold by liquidators.
The legal reckoning has been sprawling. In 2025, the High Court ordered Envy companies' directors to pay more than S$900 million in compensation for breach of duties, and the Court of Appeal upheld S$38 million in clawbacks from former employees. Ng, who declined to testify, faces charges including forgery, cheating, fraudulent trading and criminal breach of trust. In December 2025 he received a fresh charge over an alleged S$1.5 million indemnity agreement with his bailor.
If convicted on the main charges, Ng would have executed the largest investment fraud in Singapore's history, a case that exposed how trust, prestige and the promise of extraordinary returns can blind even the most sophisticated investors.