Singaporean investment figure arrested in Zimbabwe amid multimillion-dollar gold fraud case

ZIMBABWE — Singaporean investment figure Yong Khong Yoong Mark has been arrested in Zimbabwe, according to a report by The Standard, adding a new legal front to a series of fraud allegations that now span multiple continents.

According to the Standard, Zimbabwean police intercepted Yong at the Norton tollgate as he travelled in a black Lexus sport utility vehicle with three other individuals. A search was subsequently conducted at his residence in Borrowdale, an upscale suburb of Harare.

Investigators said they recovered approximately 10 grammes of suspected gold nuggets during the search and were verifying whether Yong holds the legal permits required to possess the material.

He now faces charges of fraud, money laundering, and illegal possession of gold, arising from an investigation into a mining investment arrangement in which a foreign investor was allegedly defrauded of US$1.5 million.

On 16 March 2026, a Harare magistrate granted Yong bail of US$1,500. He awaits further proceedings before the Zimbabwean courts.

Singapore High Court upholds worldwide asset freeze

The Zimbabwe arrest follows a significant ruling by the General Division of the Singapore High Court, handed down on 19 December 2025. Senior Judge Tan Siong Thye dismissed an application to discharge a Mareva injunction against Yong and his associate Emily Hwang Mei Chen.

The injunction prohibits Yong, Hwang, and a third defendant, Carlos Luis Salas Porras, from disposing of assets up to the value of US$38,614,846, whether held solely or jointly.

The case was filed in July 2025 by claimants Ser Kang Wei, also known as Jack, and his company Lucent Trading Limited, who allege they were the victims of a fraudulent gold investment scheme perpetuated by all three defendants.

The claimants advanced their case on the grounds of misrepresentation, conspiracy, and unjust enrichment. They sought the return of US$38,614,846 in invested principal, plus US$39,264,479.20 in promised profits, a combined claim exceeding US$77.8 million.

The alleged schemes

According to the claimants' account as set out in the judgment, the alleged fraud unfolded across two linked operations. The first, referred to as the South African Scheme, began in or around March 2019.

Salas Porras, a Costa Rican national with a long professional history connected to Yong, approached Ser with a proposal to invest in South African gold trading. The vehicle was a Cayman Islands hedge fund, Coinful Capital Fund SPC, operating through its flagship portfolio, PIERCE50.

Ser transferred approximately US$2.76 million in Tether cryptocurrency to a wallet controlled by Salas Porras in October and November 2019 to participate in the scheme.

The second scheme involved transfers by Lucent Trading to a British Virgin Islands company, Master Dragon Global Enterprises Holding Ltd. Between 5 February 2020 and 21 September 2021, Lucent Trading transferred US$35,855,312 in cryptocurrency to Master Dragon for investment in Zimbabwean gold trading.

The scheme allegedly involved a Zimbabwean company, BetterBrands Investments, purchasing gold from artisanal miners and selling it to Fidelity Printers and Refiners, a company owned by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, for a profit to be shared with investors.

After October 2021, Ser received no further investment payouts. Following inquiries, he was told that payments from Fidelity had been delayed due to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and could not be released.

After Coinful Capital was wound up in the Cayman Islands in April 2023, investigators found the fund held a net cash position of only S$135,000.

The South African entities said to have been involved denied any dealings with Coinful Capital, corroborating the claimants' allegation that the scheme had been fraudulent from the outset.

Court findings on Yong and Hwang

In dismissing the application to set aside the injunction, Senior Judge Tan found that the claimants had made out more than a good arguable case that Yong was involved in both schemes.

The court cited transcripts of recorded telephone conversations between Ser, Yong, and Salas Porras, in which Yong agreed to assume 50 per cent liability for all unpaid funds arising from the schemes.

The court identified serious internal inconsistencies in Yong's account of events. Yong had averred that his involvement only began after the schemes encountered difficulties. However, recorded calls showed him discussing recovery sums far larger than his own account could explain.

Evidence from Coinful Capital's former Chief Risk Officer further implicated Yong. He deposed that Salas Porras had described Yong as one of only two licensed precious metals brokers in Zimbabwe, with strong connections to government officials.

The court also noted that Salas Porras, who is currently remanded in Taiwan following a criminal prosecution initiated by Ser with Taiwanese authorities, had consistently named Yong as the central figure in both schemes throughout criminal proceedings in Taiwan.

Salas Porras was charged in the Taiwanese Criminal Court on 6 March 2025 following investigations by the Ministry of Justice's Investigation Bureau.

Regarding Hwang, the court found a good arguable case against her based partly on her role as sole shareholder and director of a Singapore company, Precious Metals Tswane Pte Ltd.

The Singapore company's name closely resembled that of a South African entity, Precious Metals Tswane (Pty) Ltd, said to be central to the South African Scheme. The court found the similarity corroborated the claimants' fraud allegation.

The court also found that Hwang's companies had been used to make investment payouts to investors in the Zimbabwean Scheme, and that she had facilitated the transfer of property to at least one investor on Yong's behalf.

Risk of asset dissipation

The court found a real risk that Yong and Hwang would dissipate their assets, identifying four main grounds for that conclusion.

First, the court cited the well-substantiated nature of the fraud allegations, describing the defendants' alleged conduct as "egregious acts of fraud which reveal grave dishonesty" involving a complex web of corporate entities.

Second, a private investigation report submitted by the claimants found that Salas Porras had been a director, shareholder, or executive of at least 68 companies connected to Yong, across a network spanning at least 18 jurisdictions.

The report also found that 18 entities registered in the United Arab Emirates had been incorporated, restructured, and dissolved within short periods, with the parent company of those entities owned by Hwang and Yong's son, Marcus Yong.

Third, the court found that Yong had transferred US$100,000 to another investor in apparent breach of the injunction, suggesting the existence of assets held outside the court's scrutiny.

Fourth, both Yong and Hwang had failed to disclose bank accounts held in Bangkok, Thailand, where they were based at the time. The court found this omission to be highly suspicious.

The court dismissed the application to vary the injunction so as to increase the defendants' weekly living allowance. It observed that Yong had claimed shares in his investment management firm, Uncharted Group Limited (Uncharted), were worth approximately US$40 million, which alone would more than cover the US$38.6 million secured by the order.

The court ordered the claimants to pay S$100,000 into court within four weeks to fortify their undertaking as to damages, following a finding that the claimants had not disclosed their significant indebtedness.

A pattern of litigation across multiple jurisdictions

The Zimbabwe arrest and Singapore proceedings form part of a broader pattern of legal disputes involving Yong.

In November 2025, he and his son Marcus Yong were sued in Hong Kong by a Chinese businessman who alleged he was defrauded of US$1.3 million in an African mining scheme.

Also in November 2025, a Cayman Islands investment firm brought proceedings against Yong and three associates seeking US$49 million, alleging fraud in connection with Coinful Capital, the same fund implicated in the Singapore proceedings.

Yong has also been linked to earlier proceedings involving Zimbabwean mining assets and Singaporean investor networks, including an alleged US$6 million gold scheme involving Master Dragon and a Singapore family office in 2022.

In December 2021, Yong reportedly incurred gambling debts of approximately US$5 million at The Star Gold Coast casino in Australia through a cheque cashing facility, giving rise to foreign judgment registration proceedings in Singapore.