Nickel investment scam
The second involves alleged fraud involving nickel trading by Envysion Wealth Management, now known as Hui Xun Asset Management (HXAM). MAS says it has completed reviewing the documents obtained from HXAM and its interviews with persons acquainted with the case.
To recap, Singaporean businessman Ng Yu Zhi had scammed investors through a nickel investment scheme with at least $1 billion in funds involved. He had also cheated at least $48 million from a fund management company, Envysion Wealth Management. The alleged offences took place between October 2017 and February 2021. Some of Ng’s victims were top legal professionals, including Pek Siok Lan, then general counsel for Temasek, and Thio Shen Yi, joint managing partner of TSMP Law Corporation.
Several high-profile cases fall under this period of investigation by the MAS. These include the investigation of four FI about their dealings with payments systems provider Wirecard-linked persons, commodities giant Noble Group, and hedge fund Three Arrows Capital.
MAS has imposed a civil penalty of $12.6 million on Noble Group for publishing misleading information in its financial statements, in breach of the SFA in August 2022.
It also reprimanded Three Arrows Capital for “providing false information to MAS and exceeding the assets under management (AUM) threshold allowed for a registered fund management company (RFMC)” back in June 2022. Just last week, the MAS imposed a nine-year ban on each of the two co-founders of Three Arrows Capital.
Link to 1MDB scandal
Earlier this month, MAS issued a lifetime ban on ex-Goldman banker Roger Ng, who had already been sentenced to a 10-year jail term by a US court for his role in the 1MDB scandal.
In addition, the regulator made 39 criminal convictions of individuals involved in market misconduct and related offences. This was the result of joint investigations with the Commercial Affairs Department. It also issued 18 prohibition orders against unfit representatives while $12.96 million in civil penalties were imposed on two individuals for false trading and one individual for insider trading as well as one entity for disclosure-related breaches.
The MAS opened 136 cases during this reporting period. Insider trading ranked top with the most number of opened cases at a figure of 32, followed by disclosure-related breaches at 25 cases.
In total, the MAS took an average of 11 months to conclude its cases during the reporting period. A case is deemed open when it is referred to the Attorney-General’s Chambers for criminal prosecution or civil action, approved for regulatory action or when a decision is made to take no further action.
Peggy Pao, executive director (enforcement), MAS, says: “MAS has taken strong enforcement actions and deepened relationships with our partners to uphold the integrity and reputation of Singapore as a trusted financial centre. Even as the novelty and complexity of our cases increase, we will continue to administer an effective and fair enforcement regime in order to deter misconduct, protect consumers and maintain investor confidence."
