SINGAPORE: Three men charged with fraud over the movement of Nvidia chips were each handed a fresh charge in court on Thursday (Mar 6).
Singaporeans Aaron Woon Guo Jie, 41, and Alan Wei Zhaolun, 49, appeared in court jointly via videolink, while Chinese national Li Ming’s case was heard separately. All were dressed in red polo T-shirts. Woon was represented by lawyer Cheryl Chong, Wei by Mr Shashi Nathan and Li by Mr Wendell Wong.
Apart from receiving fresh charges, each had their original charge amended.
Woon and Wei now each face two charges of being in a criminal conspiracy to commit fraud on two suppliers of servers, Dell and Super Micro.
They are said to have made false representations in 2024 that the items would not be transferred to a person other than the “authorised ultimate consignee of end users”.
Li, 51, is now accused of committing fraud on Super Micro by allegedly claiming in 2023 that the end user of the items would be a company called Luxuriate Your Life.
He was given a fresh charge of accessing an OCBC corporate bank account without authorisation to make and receive transfers for Luxuriate Your Life, a company he controlled, on Jun 19, 2024.
Apart from preferring the new charges, Deputy Public Prosecutors Ng Yi Wen and Kang Jia Hui applied for all three to be remanded for a further eight days given the complex nature of the case.
Mr Ng said that investigators managed to uncover further evidence leading to Thursday’s fresh charges, showing that the period of remand had been useful.
“Specifically, this investigation has allowed the CAD (Commercial Affairs Department) to identify the two suppliers of servers that the accused persons had conspired to make the false representations to, namely Dell and Super Micro,” said Mr Ng in respect of the two Singaporeans.
Mr Ng also updated the court on investigations. CAD has seized 42 devices, comprising laptops, phones and computers, which it is still forensically examining, he said.
It has also requested bank statements from various financial institutions to trace funds and determine their movement.
Investigators were also recording statements from “new persons of interest” and existing witnesses based on new documents.
CAD will also be seeking assistance from foreign law enforcement counterparts, Mr Ng added, without specifying the countries involved. It will confront the accused with new evidence and record further statements.
“Given the steps that CAD intends to carry out, it is likely that further evidence will be obtained by ordering of further remand of eight days we thus urge the court to grant the application,” said Mr Ng.
In respect of Li, Mr Ng said CAD has assessed that there was a “risk of collusion and contamination of evidence” should he be released now.
Investigations showed that there was a “close association” between Li, his wife and a nominee shareholder of a company involved.
“Investigations thus far had suggested that the accused’s spouse and this nominee shareholder had acted on his instructions in executing certain funds transfers that are of relevance to the case at hand,” said Mr Ng, indicating potential collusion between Li and these persons if he were released on bail.
Investigators have also found connections between Li and other individuals who have left Singapore before or soon after investigations had started, Mr Ng said. Li may collude with persons who have not been identified, he said.
Woon and Wei’s defence counsels did not object to the application for further remand. The lawyers said they had not had direct contact with their clients, but noted that CAD will be allowing them to meet on Mar 12.
Mr Wong objected to Li’s further remand, but requested for Li to meet his wife and lawyers should he continue to be remanded.
Arguing against the prosecution’s application, Mr Wong said that Li could not help with investigations, such as the forensic examination of the devices. Even then, Li could always return to CAD to assist when needed.
Mr Wong described the potential risk of collusion as “a speculative, layered bare assertion”. The assertion was nothing more than an “articulation of a risk that would exist in every other case involving foreign persons that are living and working on our shores”, he said.
The lawyer added that the further remand was more a “matter of convenience” so that the authorities could see Li whenever they wanted. Mr Wong pointed out that the prosecution had not painted Li as a flight risk, but Mr Ng said this was not relevant to the current application.
The judge granted the remand application for all three men and fixed their cases for Mar 13.
In granting the application, the judge noted that it was fair for CAD to require time to complete investigations. There was also nothing to suggest that CAD sought further remand for its own convenience, she added.
She rejected Mr Wong’s application for himself and his wife to meet Li earlier, noting that the wife was considered a person of interest.
Woon, Wei and Li were first charged on Feb 27 after being arrested the day before.
The three were among nine people arrested during raids by the Singapore Police Force and Singapore Customs in February, after media reports stated that intermediaries in the country were involved in the illegal movement of Nvidia chips to China, bypassing US export controls.
Nvidia’s artificial intelligence chips are subject to US export restrictions and US authorities are investigating whether Chinese AI sensation DeepSeek had circumvented sanctions through third parties in countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.
On Monday, Law and Home Affairs Minister K Shanmugam said investigations into the three men were carried out independently by Singapore after authorities received an anonymous tip-off, and not requested by the US or any other country.
He said the servers linked to the fraud case may have contained Nvidia’s artificial intelligence chips which were then sent to Malaysia.
“The question is whether Malaysia was a final destination or from Malaysia, it went to somewhere else, which we do not know for certain at this point,” he told reporters.
“But we assessed that there may have been false representation on the final destination of the servers.”
Singapore has asked Malaysian and US authorities to for relevant information to assist in investigations.
Mr Shanmugam said companies operating in Singapore are expected to take into account other countries’ unilateral export controls in their international business activities and conduct their businesses transparently.
Countries in the trade and supply chain have to work together to ensure that everything is done properly, by enforcing their domestic laws within their jurisdictions, he added.
The offence of fraud by false representation carries a jail term of up to 20 years, a fine, or both.
