Singapore court sets RM3.28m bail for suspect in alleged Nvidia server export scheme to Malaysia
SINGAPORE, May 2 — Three men allegedly linked to the export of servers from Singapore to Malaysia that may have contained high-performance Nvidia chips are now out on bail, with one potentially facing more charges as investigations continue.
According to The Straits Times, Chinese national Li Ming, 51, has been released on S$1 million (RM3.28 million) bail, while Singaporeans Alan Wei Zhaolun, 48, and Aaron Woon Guo Jie, 40, were granted bail of S$800,000 and S$600,000 respectively.
The trio are accused of fraud involving servers from Dell and Supermicro, which were reportedly exported to Malaysia in potential breach of US export controls.
Nvidia, a major American AI chipmaker, has been at the centre of a wider controversy involving the alleged circumvention of US trade restrictions on advanced chips.
At a court hearing today, Deputy Public Prosecutor Phoebe Tan sought a 12-week adjournment, citing the complexity of the case and the possibility of 'more charges' for Li. His lawyer instead requested a pre-trial conference.
District Judge Ng Cheng Thiam granted an eight-week adjournment. The case will be mentioned again on June 27.
Li faces two charges: one of fraud and another under the Computer Misuse Act. He is accused of deceiving Supermicro in 2023 by claiming the servers' end user would be his firm, Luxuriate Your Life. He also allegedly accessed an OCBC bank account without permission on June 19, 2024.
Wei and Woon each face two fraud charges. Prosecutors say they conspired to deceive Dell and Supermicro by falsely stating the servers would not be transferred beyond authorised end users. Both worked for Aperia Cloud Services, where Wei was CEO and Woon COO.
Preliminary findings suggest the servers — possibly embedded with Nvidia chips —were routed through Singapore before being shipped to Malaysia. The case surfaced after an anonymous tip-off.
On March 3, Minister for Home Affairs and Law K. Shanmugam said, 'The servers most likely contained items subject to export controls by the US.'
He added Singapore was investigating whether Malaysia was the final destination.
'If false representations were made in Singapore about the servers' final destination, then an offence under Singapore law has been committed,' he added.
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