Chen Zhi's Singapore family asset management office has filed a series of lawsuits from 2021 to 2022, accusing former CEO David Wong, a Singaporean citizen, of appropriating $4.5 million in Chen Zhi's money from an Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp account.
Chen Zhi, now 37 years old, was already rich when he first met David Wong in mid-2017 and wanted to invest more in Singapore to apply for permanent residence.
The two sides worked very quickly. In 2017 alone, Chen Zhi spent about 29.6 million USD on luxury real estate. By 2018, David Wong had met and submitted sufficient documents to banks, the Economic Development Committee and the Singapore Monetary Authority to establish a personal asset management office for DW Capital Holdings for Chen Zhi.
According to public records and sources with expertise, Chen Zhi has had a few years of smooth operation, expanding globally and owning a number of Toyota Alphards and Mercedes-Maybach limousine cars in Singapore and other countries.
People familiar with Singapore have found that Cambodia's Prince Group founder Chen Zhi likes expensive tea - a tea cake that could cost more than $100,000 - and Chen Zhi often wears a Richard Mille or Patek Philippe watch.
During that time, David Wong hired Chen Zhi and established a number of companies.
At the end of May 2021, Chen Zhi decided to change the operation of the family asset management office in Singapore.
During the merger, the audit team led by Karen Chen Xiuling - one of 18 individuals sanctioned by the US for being involved in online fraud - needed access to important documents and management accounts for activities overseen by David Wong.
In the merger plan, one of Chen Zhi's key companies - Skyline Investment Management - will move to the same headquarters as Chen Zhi's family asset management office in Duo Tower.
Most of the Skyline to Duo Tower went smoothly, but no one in the group could operate the photocopy machine and had to go to David Wong's technical team. The auditor also found that there were a number of other businesses using offices on the 10th floor of Duo Tower as operating addresses.
The turning point came one evening when David Wong explained a number of businesses that Karen Chen Xiuling had identified as personal projects. The atmosphere between the parties, including Chen Zhi's personal assistant, turned around and changed rapidly, with an appointment to discuss on July 5, 2021.
On this day, when Karen Chen Xiuling's staff used their cards to enter and exit the Duo Tower to reach the office on the 10th floor, their cards were blocked.
The very next day, David Wong was fired from his position as CEO. The office door is still closed. When the auditors returned to the office on July 12, the space was almost empty.
The report then showed that millions of dollars have been spent in and out over the coming years on some businesses similar to David Wong's individual companies that Chen Zhi did not know about.
In his 2021 statement, David Wong, now 55 years old, denied the allegations from Chen Zhi. After that, David Wong was mostly silent and absent from many trials. In December 2022, the Singapore Supreme Court issued an absentee judgment against David Wong, forcing him and related companies to pay a debt of more than $9.24 million. David Wong has filed for bankruptcy.
