S$1b Envy Global fraud case: Arrest warrant issued for man accused of helping ex-director in escape bid

SINGAPORE: A warrant of arrest was issued on Tuesday (Sep 6) for a man accused of conspiring to help a businessman linked to a billion-dollar nickel investment fraud case flee Singapore.

Shawn Liew Cheng Long, 36, was charged in July with one count of conspiring with another man to assist the former managing director of Envy Global Trading Ng Yu Zhi to leave Singapore illegally. This was when Ng was under investigation for criminal offences.

Liew did not turn up for his court mention on Tuesday. The judge issued a warrant of arrest for him, and his two defence counsels were discharged.

Liew is accused of engaging in a conspiracy with Ang Yew Teck around August 2021 to help Ng leave Singapore and obstruct the course of justice. He allegedly offered Ng plans to leave the country.

Ang was given a similar charge in February and faces other offences including illegal gambling acts.

The police previously said in a statement that this case is separate from another bid by three others to help Ng escape. All three have been sentenced to jail.

Ng faces more than 100 charges, including cheating and criminal breach of trust. One of the charges is for dishonestly misappropriating at least S$201.2 million from Envy Global Trading's DBS bank account between August 2020 and February 2021.

His alleged victims include a criminal lawyer who was allegedly cheated in an arrangement involving more than S$1 million between October 2020 and January 2021, as well as a woman listed as general counsel on Temasek's website. 

She was allegedly cheated into giving S$5.5 million to Envy Global Trading for four receivables purchase agreements between October 2020 and January 2021.

Ng is also accused of cheating a former president of the Law Society of Singapore of about S$87,000 between October 2020 and December 2020.

Ng is next set to return to court for a pre-trial conference in October.