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

NG Yu Zhi, a Singaporean businessman involved in what's said to be one of the biggest financial fraud cases here, was charged on Monday with forging bank documents during the course of investigations.

The 34-year-old was arrested in February and charged last month as it emerged that investors may have been deceived into placing at least S$1 billion with commodities trader Envy Global Trading (EGT) and Envy Asset Management (EAM) for fake deals related to nickel trading. Ng had been the managing director of EGT and a director at EAM, which is now inactive.

On Monday, Ng was charged with forging an electronic record purportedly issued by Citibank NA in London and which shows that EAM has transferred US$60 million from its bank account to PPG Asia Limited's Bank of East Asia account.

He was also charged with forging a summary of EAM's bank accounts, purportedly issued by Citibank UK and which shows balances of some US$302.5 million in a US dollar current account and US$10,000 in a US dollar savings account.

Both offences were committed during the course of investigations and are therefore "serious and urgent in nature", the prosecution said in court on Monday.

In addition to the two charges on Monday, Ng currently faces five charges over cheating five individuals of nearly S$9 million, and two charges over swindling Envysion Wealth Management and its chief executive Veronica Shim Wai Han of at least S$48 million.

Ng also faces two charges of being a party to his two firms that were operated for fraudulent purposes.

He is currently out on bail of S$1.5 million, with electronic monitoring imposed by the court.

If convicted, Ng could be jailed up to 10 years and fined for each count of cheating.

For each count of fraudulent trading, he could be jailed for up to seven years, fined up to S$15,000 or both.

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