Hedge fund manager held over S$1b fraud

A 33-year-old hedge fund manager in Singapore was arrested after cheating at least S$1 billion (HK$5.82 billion) from investors.

Singapore-based Envy Asset Management and Envy Global Trading director Ng Yu Zhi was charged last month with four counts of fraud for commodity trades that didn't exist. The Singapore police have called it one of the city-state's largest-ever suspected investment fraud schemes.

According to court documents, Ng claimed he was able to gain an average of 15 percent quarterly - a track record that would have placed him in the same league as the world's top-performing hedge fund managers.

Ng was involved in deceiving investors into buying supposed forward contracts that were purportedly with BNP Paribas, but those contracts didn't exist.

In addition to a British Virgin Islands-registered company with a London bank account, Ng has also invested in at least three other companies in Hong Kong and London and a fund management company in Switzerland.

Meanwhile, Securities and Futures Commission in Hong Kong has fined Optimas Capital HK$1.05 million over failures to ensure short position reports.

A total of 350 reportable short positions held by the collective investment scheme had been omitted in 56 short position reports submitted by Optimas to the SFC between June 23, 2017, and July 9, 2018.

Digital fraud attempts from Hong Kong have increased by 19.25 percent since the pandemic began, according to TransUnion.

Around 44 percent of generation Z investors have been the target of digital fraud.