BUSINESSMAN Ng Yu Zhi, who is involved in an alleged US$1.1 billion nickel trading scam, has been slapped with another 18 charges on Monday (Feb 14), bringing the total number of charges he is facing to 93.

Ng was a director of Envy Asset Management and Envy Global Trading, which allegedly raised at least S$1 billion from investors for fake deals related to nickel trading. He was arrested in February 2021 and first charged with cheating and fraudulent trading in March 2021.

Among the fresh charges are 3 that alleged Ng, 34, spent more than S$43 million of ill-gotten gains to purchase luxury goods, jewellery, property and luxury cars, and to make payments, from March 2020 to February 2021.

These payments include service hire purchases for a Lamborghini Urus, a Rolls Royce Wraith, a McLaren MP4-12C 650s Spider and Bentley Mulsanne 6.8 Turbo Auto. He also bought jewellery from Bulgari, Luxlexicon, Huen's and Louis Vuitton, among other luxury brands and shops, as well as watches from Luxury Koncept, for more than S$8.4 million in total.

Stamp duties for properties on Jervois Road, Bussorah Street, Coldstream Avenue and Emerald Hill were also among the list, according to charge sheets seen by The Business Times.

The new charges also alleged that Ng duped Envysion Wealth Management between July 2018 and February 2021 into believing that Envy Global Trading would be selling 6,000 tonnes of nickel to a firm named Raffemet, when no such sale had occurred.

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He is also said to have made false electronic records on nickel sales that did not occur, and transfered the profits of fraudulent transactions to other parties.

Investigations are ongoing, with the next court session to take place on Mar 28. He is out on a bail of S$4 million.

In January this year, the High Court dismissed an appeal by Ng to put a pause to a civil suit against him and Envy Global Trading. He had sought a stay on the lawsuit, which was initiated by construction company Debenho and its managing director Low Teck Dee, on grounds that he would be prejudiced if it proceeded since he also faces criminal charges arising out of the same facts.

If convicted, Ng could be jailed for up to 10 years and fined for each count of cheating. For each count of fraudulent trading, he could be jailed for up to 7 years, fined up to S$15,000, or both. For each count of forgery, he could be jailed for up to 4 years and fined.

READ MORE:

• Envy's Ng Yu Zhi slapped with 20 new charges linked to nickel trading fraud

• Singapore businessman Ng Yu Zhi charged with forging bank documents while under probe

• Job scams the next big worry, with S$6.5m lost in first half of 2021