“I TRUSTED NG AS A PERSON”
On Tuesday, Mr Lau took the stand for the first time, with the prosecution asking him about how he came to know Ng and how he eventually joined the company.
The court heard that Mr Lau and Ng were former secondary school classmates who lost contact until late 2015, when they met up through a mutual friend.
Following Ng’s advice, Mr Lau said he later invested S$50,000 in offshore drilling company Seadrill sometime in 2016, which did “very well”, going up by five to six times.
In February 2016, he learnt about nickel trading from Ng, who shared that the metal would be procured from a supplier and that Ng was doing crowdfunding to do the trade.
Encouraged by the performance of his previous investments, Mr Lau decided to invest S$100,000 in the nickel scheme with his father.
“I trusted Ng as a person, trusted his investment acumen. He seemed very successful at the time,” he said.
When the contract matured three months later, in May 2016, Mr Lau said he withdrew the money.
Hoping to learn more about how the company operated, he joined the firm sometime in 2016, taking up a role in sales.
The court heard that Mr Lau’s primary responsibility was to raise funds for the company.
As of February 2021 – when the Commercial Affairs Department (CAD) commenced its investigations into Envy Global Trading – Mr Lau was managing about 30 investors, with at least half being his family members.
During Tuesday’s examination-in-chief, the prosecution presented key evidence relating to the alleged purchase of nickel. This included “distributorship agreements” between Ng’s companies and Poseidon Nickel Limited, as well as statements claiming to show transactions between Envy Asset Management and BNP Paribas.
Sometime in the second half of 2018, Mr Lau began questioning Ng about the scheme as he had received critical questions from prospective investors, which he could not answer.
He also voiced concerns he had about the fund with Ng, saying there were “quite a few red flags”.
This included questions about the signatures on agreements, which appeared to be printed rather than freshly signed.
“My investors are my immediate family, my friends, my close ones, so I’m always doing my utmost best to protect their interest and monies …so when these questions with regard to (the company’s) came up and I couldn’t answer them … it made me feel concerned to a very large extent because I had been raising a lot of funds for the company,” he said.
However, Mr Lau said he often felt reassured by Ng’s explanations, and at times even felt like he was overstepping by asking these questions.
Ng was arrested in February 2021 and charged with cheating, criminal breach of trust, forgery, fraudulent trading and money laundering.
On Tuesday, Mr Lau testified that Ng organised an “all-hands-on-deck” meeting shortly after being released on bail. This was attended by the senior management of all the company’s subsidiaries.
When Mr Lau asked Ng if the monies were in Singapore, Ng allegedly told him that approximately US$300 million was parked in an offshore Citibank UK account under the name of Envy Asset Management Trading. Separately, another US$60 million was said to be with a Hong Kong company called PPG Asia.
Later, at a meeting with investors, Ng replied “very confidently” that there was more than enough to pay off the next tranche of returns to investors, said Mr Lau.
“THE WORLD CAME CRASHING DOWN”
Towards the end of the examination-in-chief, which spanned nearly five hours, Mr Lau grew emotional as he described the financial toll the case has taken on him.
He told the court that liquidators have commenced legal proceedings against the company’s ex-employees – including Mr Lau – seeking the return of commission they had earned.
“If liquidators are successful, I will be bankrupt,” he said, adding that they are demanding he repay over S$17 million based on their accounting methodology.
Mr Lau also said the case has affected his career: “Investors … don’t trust me. I lost their trust.”
“I find it very hard to believe in documents these days, (it’s) so easy to use Photoshop to forge documents.”
“Revisiting all this – all the lies and fraudulent documents – is traumatic,” he said, as tears welled up in his eyes.
He shared that his father had invested about S$15 million to S$16 million, while his mother had put in a significant portion of her life savings – approximately S$500,000 – in the scheme.
“Two months after the investigation, (my mother) felt a lump in her chest. During that period, Mr Ng got arrested for forgery. That was when we realised everything was a fraud,” he said.
“It was like the world came crashing down on me and my family.”
Mr Lau said his mother was later diagnosed with stage four cancer.
Sitting in the dock, Ng appeared emotionless as he flipped through a stack of documents.
“Every year (between 2016 and 2021), Envy has always held annual meetings with investors. My family would always be there, thanking (Ng) for the profit he generated … I just find it very hard to believe,” he said.
The trial continues on Wednesday, with the defence expected to cross-examine Lau.
