Accused caused world to come 'crashing down', says ex-director of Envy firms

He says his family invested over $40m and realised fraud only after Ng's arrest

- Selina Lum

The former executive director of the Envy companies cried on the stand on April 1 as he talked about how "the world came crashing down" on his family, who had invested more than $40 million in a nickel-trading scam.

Mr Lau Lee Sheng was testifying in the ongoing trial of 37-year-old Ng Yu Zhi, the man accused of masterminding the alleged scam, which attracted $1.46 billion from investors through his companies Envy Asset Management and Envy Global Trading.

Ng faces 108 charges over offences including cheating, forgery, criminal breach of trust, money laundering and fraudulent trading.

The prosecution is proceeding on 42 of these charges in the current trial, which began in November 2024.

Mr Lau, a former secondary schoolmate of Ng, whose companies he joined, told the court that he invested $26 million in the scam, while his father put in another $15 million to $16 million.

His mother and two sisters were also investors. The sum of $500,000 that his mother invested was a very significant amount of her life savings, he said.