Temasek Holdings legal counsel, other prominent lawyers among victims of Singapore’s largest financial scam

A general counsel for Temasek Holdings is among several leading legal professionals who had allegedly fallen prey to a S$1 billion fraud scam.

Pek Siok Lan was reportedly cheated of S$5.5 million, according to fresh charge sheets against Singaporean businessman Ng Yu Zhi, who has been prosecuted for allegedly swindling investors into non-existent nickel deals.

Ng, the director of Envy Asset Management and Envy Global Trading, was previously facing 18 charges for cheating, fraudulent trading, and forgery. He was slapped with the 13 new charges on Monday (28 June).

He is accused of committing criminal breach of trust by “dishonestly misappropriating a sum of at least S$201 million” from Envy Global Trading’s DBS Bank account.

Other than Pek, the alleged victims named in the new charges include criminal lawyer Sunil Sudheesan and ex-president of the Law Society Thio Shen Yi.

According to charge sheets, Ng had allegedly conned Sunil and Thio out of S$1 million and S$87,000 respectively.

Vickers Capital Group chairman, Finian Tan and Chuan Hup Holdings chief executive officer Terence Peh were allegedly swindled out of US$19.2 million and S$3 million respectively.

A minimum of four lawsuits have been filed against Ng and Envy Global Trading by investors seeking to claim around S$50 million.

The Commercial Affairs Department has seized around S$100 million of assets from Ng to date.

Neither of Ng’s companies is licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

The authority noted in March that it was notified about Envy Asset Management’s claims on being in the process of applying for a licence. However, MAS said that no such application had been submitted.

Currently, Ng is out on bail of S$1.5 million. He is slated to return to court on 5 July for a bail review.