Three ex-employees of Envy group join Ng Yu Zhi in bankruptcy

[SINGAPORE] Three former employees of the Envy group of companies – at the heart of the S$1.5 billion nickel-trading Ponzi scheme that Ng Yu Zhi allegedly perpetrated – have been declared bankrupt after having been ordered by court to repay S$26.6 million in clawbacks.

Bankruptcy orders were made against former sales director Lau Lee Sheng, financial accountant Shen Xuhuai, and business development director and marketing communications director Guo Yujia on Sep 17, the government gazette published on Friday (Sep 25) showed.

The applications were made by the liquidators of Envy Global Trading, Envy Management and Envy Asset Management, after the Court of Appeal dismissed Lau and Shen’s appeals in June.

Lau and Shen were ordered to repay S$17.9 million and S$6.1 million, respectively, in commissions, profit-sharing payments or money received in excess of their investment principals in the purported nickel trading.

Guo did not appeal the decision of the High Court delivered in July 2025, which ruled that he was liable to pay about S$2.6 million in clawbacks.

Shook Lin & Bok acted for the liquidators in the bankruptcy applications.

Guo, Lau and Shen, together with another five former employees of Envy, were sued for payments including referral fees, which they had received in good faith as they were unaware that the scheme was fraudulent.

Two of these defendants had settled the claims with the liquidators.

Lee Si Ye and Ju Xiao, who were found liable in a separate trial for breaching their duties as Envy directors, had earlier applied for and were granted bankruptcy orders after the High Court’s judgment.

Lee had a debt of more than S$881.3 million and Ju, S$345 million.

Cheong Ming Feng, formerly an administrative executive at Envy, was found liable for S$1.9 million in the case where he was sued together with Lee, Ju and Ng. Cheong was also declared bankrupt in December 2025.

Ng, deemed the “main protagonist in a large-scale fraud”, was the first among these seven to be declared bankrupt in 2022.

This was after the liquidators received a partial summary judgment – which was passed in their favour without having gone through a trial – for about S$416.4 million and US$17.6 million over his alleged acts.

Envy Asset Management had purportedly engaged in physical nickel trading by purchasing quantities of London Metal Exchange Nickel Grade Metal at a discounted rate, and then selling the metal at a higher price to third-party buyers.

After Envy Asset Management was placed on the authority’s investor alert list for being wrongly perceived as being licensed to carry out such trading, the business was transferred to Envy Global Trading, owned by Envy Management Holdings.

The nickel-trading scam – the largest Ponzi scheme in Singapore’s history – attracted about S$1.5 billion in funds from investors that included financiers and lawyers.

Ng’s criminal trial, in which he opted to stay silent on the 42 proceeded charges, is pending verdict. He faces more than 100 charges over offences including cheating, forgery, fraudulent trading, money laundering and criminal breach of trust.

The prosecution alleged that Ng’s lavish lifestyle was funded by his ill-gotten gains. During the trial, the court heard evidence that he splurged millions on luxury cars for his wife and girlfriends, property, works of art and jewellery.

He has been remanded in prison since Feb 7, 2024. His S$6 million bail was revoked after he breached his bail conditions by allegedly trying to get S$500,000 from the sale of a shophouse.