SINGAPORE: A car dealer who testified on Friday (Apr 11) during the trial of Ng Yu Zhi revealed that the alleged fraudster spent more than S$8 million (US$6 million) on high-end cars as well as special vehicle registration plate numbers over seven months.
This is a small fraction of what Ng allegedly spent on cars. Court documents showed that he reportedly spent more than S$21 million on cars between December 2019 and February 2021.
Ng is at the centre of an alleged billion-dollar nickel investment fraud case and stands accused of duping 947 investors of almost S$1.5 billion.
Out of this amount, 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 and Envy Asset Management.
On Friday, the director of F1 Autos and F1 Auto Cars, Michael Ho, took the stand, with the prosecution asking him how he came to know Ng.
Mr Ho said he was introduced to Ng sometime in 2018 or 2019 over lunch, and they became “friendly” after that.
He told the court that Ng would place orders for cars generally over the phone, or face-to-face or over a message.
When Deputy Public Prosecutor Chan Yi Chen asked whether he met Ng outside of business dealings related to cars, Mr Ho said: “Yes, we were friends. I suppose we are friends.”
Mr Ho added that he had also invested S$200,000 in Ng’s purported nickel scheme but did not take out any money.
When the prosecutor asked Mr Ho to go into details about each of the cars Ng had purchased from him between June 2020 and January 2021, Judicial Commissioner Christopher Tan stepped in to ask whether it was relevant.
Mr Chan said it was as it would show the type of cars and lifestyle Ng had led.
These are the cars Ng purchased from him, with the description provided by Mr Ho:
- Mercedes-Benz AMG GT, a matte grey two-door sports car (S$550,000)
- Bentley GTC White, a white convertible (S$800,000)
- BMW M8, a black saloon car (S$649,000)
- Aston Martin Rapide, a black saloon car, and a Ferrari 575 (S$600,000)
- Rolls-Royce Phantom EWB, a white “top of the range Rolls-Royce” car that has extra leg room (S$1.8 million)
- Mercedes-Benz G350D, a green sport utility vehicle (S$460,000)
- Rolls-Royce Phantom EWB V12 Auto, a purple “top of the range Rolls-Royce” car (S$2.1 million)
According to Mr Ho’s conditioned statement, the ownership of a Ferrari 575 was not transferred to Ng. He did not take possession of the vehicle as he had wanted F1 Autos to make repairs to the vehicle before taking possession of it.
As repairs were not completed, Ng did not follow up with the company to take possession or arrange for the ownership to be transferred to him, according to Mr Ho’s conditioned statement.
Mr Ho said that the ownership for six of the cars were transferred to other people under Ng’s instructions: Qian Yi Jun, Wang Ruoxuan, Tay Liting, Cai Meizhen and Cheong Ming Feng.
When Mr Chan asked how these people were related to Ng, Mr Ho said he believed that Ms Qian, Ms Wang and Ms Tay were Ng’s girlfriends while Ms Cai was Ng’s wife. He said he did not know who Mr Cheong was.
Besides the cars, Ng also purchased two special vehicle registration plate numbers – “S11T” and “ES11J” – for S$1.05 million and S$91,000 respectively, from Mr Ho’s company.
Explaining the significance of the vehicle registration plate numbers, Mr Ho said he believed that “S1 to S10” are usually reserved for government officials, suggesting that the vehicle registration numbers that Ng purchased were the first “civilian” plates.
According to Mr Ho, Ng paid for the cars and the vehicle registration plate numbers through bank cheques and bank transfers.
During the defence’s cross-examination, Ng’s lawyer Nichol Yeo asked Mr Ho if he was aware that Ng owned a car dealership called Envy Motors and whether he knew that the company also traded in car licence plates.
Mr Ho said he knew that Ng was the owner but was not aware that his company had traded in licence plates.
When asked if Ng had ever paid for the cars or vehicle plate numbers in cash, cryptocurrency or other payments, Mr Ho said no.
NG’S TRIAL
For Ng’s trial at the High Court, which opened in November last year, prosecutors are proceeding on 42 charges.
These are for 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 prosecution said previously that it will lead evidence from 58 witnesses to make its case over more than 50 days of trial that have been scheduled.
So far, witnesses who have testified in court include private banker Veronica Shim, who is the former CEO of Envysion Wealth Management, former Envy executive director Lau Lee Sheng and venture capitalist Dr Finian Tan, who invested in Ng’s scheme.
Ng’s trial continues on Apr 15 with more car dealers expected to testify.
