SINGAPORE, Feb 28 – Three men have reportedly been charged yesterday with fraud in a case allegedly linked to US chipmaker Nvidia, amid increased scrutiny over the island’s role in global semiconductor trade.
The Straits Times reported that the accused were Singaporeans Aaron Woon Guo Jie, 41, and Alan Wei Zhaolun, 49, along with Chinese national Li Ming, 51.
Court documents state that Li allegedly committed fraud in 2023 by misrepresenting that a company named Luxuriate Your Life was the end user of certain servers, referred to as “the items.”
Wei and Woon are accused of collaborating in 2024 to deceive a supplier by falsely claiming that the items would not be transferred to any party besides the authorised end user.
The charges come as Singapore faces scrutiny from the United States over allegations that Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek circumvented US export restrictions on advanced Nvidia chips by sourcing them through third parties, including entities in Singapore.
DeepSeek recently gained attention after launching an AI assistant at significantly lower costs than US models, which led to concerns about US dominance in AI and triggered a sell-off in technology stocks, erasing nearly US$1 trillion (RM4.4 trillion) in market value.
Following Nvidia’s financial disclosures that 22 per cent of its third-quarter billings were linked to Singapore, Singapore’s Second Minister for Trade and Industry Tan See Leng told its Parliament that less than 1 per cent of Nvidia’s revenue involved products physically delivered to Singapore.
Tan also noted that the majority of Nvidia’s revenue billed to Singaporean business entities did not involve physical shipments into the country, with the chipmaker’s products primarily used by major enterprises and the government.
Foreign Minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan then reaffirmed Singapore’s stance on global trade regulations, stating that while the country is not legally obligated to enforce unilateral export measures imposed by foreign governments, it will adhere to internationally agreed export control regimes.
