Good faith wasn't enough to let these employees keep their millions in commissions
Singapore's Court of Appeal ruled on 22 June 2026, with Judge Kannan Ramesh writing, that employees must repay commissions paid on profits that never existed.
The case, Lau Lee Sheng and others v Envy Asset Management Pte Ltd (in liquidation) and others, grew out of the collapse of the Envy group, which the court described as a Ponzi scheme dressed up as a nickel trading business. Investors were told their money bought and resold metal at a profit. There was no trading, and the returns paid out were recycled from other investors' funds.
At the centre were a handful of employees who brought in investors and were rewarded with commissions, profit-sharing payments and referral fees. Mr Lau, a sales director, earned a basic salary of a few thousand dollars a month, as did a second sales director, a sales associate and a financial accountant. Their variable pay ran into the millions. It was common ground that all of them acted in good faith and had no idea the business was fraudulent.
When the companies were wound up, the liquidators moved to claw the payments back. The employees argued they had earned the money by doing their jobs and should keep it. The court disagreed on the bulk of it. Their contracts tied commissions and profit-sharing to the company turning a profit, and the employees said "profit" should mean declared profit. The court rejected that, holding profit meant actual profit....
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