Ng Yu Zhi claimed he had a get-rich-quick scheme for the ages. It was so, so easy, he allegedly told investors. He would buy physical nickel from Poseidon, an Australian Securities Exchange-listed company, at a discount; then he would sell it to a buyer at a profit.
Investors would fund the purchases, and would receive handsome rewards from the resulting profits.
The potential returns: how does 15% a quarter sound?
If something appears too good to be true, it usually is.
Poseidon Nickel told the ASX on May 4, in an official statement, that it had never had a sales agreement with Ng or his companies, Envy Global Trading and Envy Asset Management. BNP Paribas Commodity Futures Limited, which Ng had claimed was a buyer of the nickel, has also said it had nothing to do with Ng or Envy; indeed, that particular arm of BNP was no longer operational at the time Envy’s statements said it was transacting.
But from 2016 to 2021 the two Envy companies received S$1.46 billion ($1.07 billion) of funds from investors, among them some big names in Singapore.
Finian
